UNITED STATES

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

Washington, D.C. 20549

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FORM 10-K

 

 

Registrant’s telephone number, including area code (212) 770-7000 

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Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act: See Exhibit 99.02

Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(g) of the Act: None

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Indicate by check mark if the registrant is a well-known seasoned issuer, as defined in Rule 405 of the Securities Act. Yes☑ No ☐

Indicate by check mark if the registrant is not required to file reports pursuant to Section 13 or Section 15(d) of the Act. Yes  ☐ No ☑

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant (1) has filed all reports required to be filed by Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to file such reports), and (2) has been subject to such filing requirements for the past 90 days.    Yes ☑         No ☐

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has submitted electronically every Interactive Data File required to be submitted pursuant to Rule 405 of Regulation S-T (§232.405 of this chapter) during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to submit such files). Yes ☑  No ☐

Indicate by check mark if disclosure of delinquent filers pursuant to Item 405 of Regulation S-K (§229.405 of this chapter) is not contained herein, and will not be contained, to the best of registrant’s knowledge, in definitive proxy or information statements incorporated by reference in Part III of this Form 10-K or any amendment to this Form 10-K.      ☐

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a large accelerated filer, an accelerated filer, a non-accelerated filer, a smaller reporting company, or an emerging growth company. See the definitions of “large accelerated filer,” “accelerated filer,” “smaller reporting company” and “emerging growth company” in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act.

If an emerging growth company, indicate by check mark if the registrant has elected not to use the extended transition period for complying with any new or revised financial accounting standards provided pursuant to Section 13(a) of the Exchange Act.  ☐

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a shell company (as defined in Rule 12b-2 of the Act).  Yes ☐    No ☑

The aggregate market value of the voting and nonvoting common equity held by nonaffiliates of the registrant (based on the closing price of the registrant’s most recently completed second fiscal quarter) was approximately $47,252,000,000.

As of February 6, 2019, there were outstanding 869,486,334 shares of Common Stock, $2.50 par value per share, of the registrant.

DOCUMENTS INCORPORATED BY REFERENCE

  

 

AMERICAN INTERNATIONAL GROUP, INC.
ANNUAL REPORT ON FORM 10-K FOR THE YEAR ENDED DECEMBER 31, 2018

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Form 10-K

 

  

 

ITEM 1 | Business

 

 

In this Annual Report, unless otherwise mentioned or unless the context indicates otherwise, we use the terms “AIG,” the “Company,” “we,” “us” and “our” to refer to American International Group, Inc., a Delaware corporation, and its consolidated subsidiaries. We use the term “AIG Parent” to refer solely to American International Group, Inc., and not to any of its consolidated subsidiaries.

 

About AIG

(a) At September 30, 2018, the latest date for which information was available for certain foreign insurance companies.

(b) At November 1, 2018.

 

2018 Highlights

Our Core businesses include General Insurance, Life and Retirement and Other Operations. General Insurance consists of two operating segments – North America and International. Life and Retirement consists of four operating segments – Individual Retirement, Group Retirement, Life Insurance and Institutional Markets. Blackboard U.S. Holdings, Inc. (Blackboard), AIG’s technology-driven subsidiary, is reported within Other Operations. We also report a Legacy Portfolio consisting of our run-off insurance lines and legacy investments that we consider non-core. Effective February 2018, our Bermuda-domiciled composite reinsurer, Fortitude Reinsurance Company Ltd (Fortitude Re.) is included in our Legacy Portfolio.

Consistent with how we manage our business, our General Insurance North America operating segment primarily includes insurance businesses in the United States, Canada and Bermuda. Our General Insurance International operating segment includes insurance businesses in Japan, the United Kingdom, Europe, the Asia Pacific region, Latin America, Puerto Rico, Australia, the Middle East and Africa. General Insurance results are presented before consideration of internal reinsurance agreements.

For further discussion on our business segments see Item 7. MD&A and Note 3 to the Consolidated Financial Statements.

Business Segments

  

(dollars in millions)

*    Our Total revenues were $47.4 billion in 2018. The graph above represents Adjusted revenues excluding revenues from our Legacy Portfolio operations of $3.0 billion. For reconciliation of Adjusted revenues to Total revenues see Note 3 to the Consolidated Financial Statements.  

 

Geographic Concentration

In 2018, 5.7 percent of our property casualty direct premiums were written in the state of California, and 16.4 percent and 7.1 percent were written in Japan and the United Kingdom, respectively. No other state or foreign jurisdiction accounted for more than five percent of our property casualty direct premiums.

For further information on our business segments see Note 3 to the Consolidated Financial Statements.

 

  

We earn revenues primarily from insurance premiums, policy fees and income from investments.

Our expenses consist of policyholder benefits and losses incurred, interest credited to policyholders, commissions and other costs of selling and servicing our products, interest expense and general operating expenses.

Our profitability is dependent on our ability to properly price and manage risk on insurance and annuity products, to manage our portfolio of investments effectively and to control costs through expense discipline.

Our insurance companies generally receive premiums and deposits well in advance of paying covered claims or benefits. In the intervening periods, we invest these premiums and deposits to generate net investment income that, along with the invested funds, is available to pay claims or benefits. As a result, we generate significant revenues from insurance investment activities.

The practice for managing the investments of the insurance companies places primary emphasis in corporate bonds, government or government-related bonds and mortgage backed securities and loans. Our fundamental strategy across all of our investment portfolios is to optimize the duration characteristics of the assets within a target range based on comparable liability characteristics, to the extent practicable.

For additional discussion of investment strategies see Item 7. MD&A — Investments.

The liability for unpaid losses and loss adjustment expenses (loss reserves) represents the accumulation of estimates for unpaid claims, including estimates for claims incurred but not reported (IBNR) for our General Insurance companies, including the related expenses of settling those losses.

The process of establishing loss reserves is complex and imprecise because it must take into consideration many variables that are subject to the outcome of future events. As a result, informed subjective estimates and judgments about our ultimate exposure to losses are an integral component of our loss reserving process. Because reserve estimates are subject to the outcome of future events, changes in prior year estimates are unavoidable in the insurance industry. These changes are sometimes referred to as “prior year loss development” or “reserve development.”

For further discussion on loss reserves and of prior year loss development see Item 7. MD&A — Critical Accounting Estimates — Insurance Liabilities — Loss Reserves, Item 7. MD&A — Insurance Reserves — Loss Reserves, and Note 13 to the Consolidated Financial Statements.

 

At AIG, we believe that a major strength of ours is the quality and dedication of our people. At December 31, 2018 and 2017, we had approximately 49,600 and 49,800 employees, respectively. We believe that our relations with our employees are satisfactory.

OVERVIEW

Our operations around the world are subject to regulation by many different types of regulatory authorities, including insurance, securities, derivatives, investment advisory and thrift regulators in the United States and abroad. The insurance and financial services industries generally have been subject to heightened regulatory scrutiny and supervision since the financial crisis.

Our insurance and reinsurance subsidiaries are subject to regulation and supervision by the states and other jurisdictions in which they do business. We expect that the domestic and international regulations applicable to us and our regulated entities will continue to evolve for the foreseeable future.

U.S. REGULATION

Dodd-Frank

On July 21, 2010, the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (Dodd-Frank), which brought about the most extensive changes to financial regulation in the United States in many years, was signed into law. On July 8, 2013, the Financial Stability Oversight Council (Council) made a determination that material financial distress at AIG could pose a threat to U.S. financial stability. On September 29, 2017, the Council rescinded its determination that material financial distress at AIG could pose a threat to U.S. financial stability and as a result, AIG is no longer designated as a nonbank systemically important financial institution (nonbank SIFI). With the rescission of its designation as a nonbank SIFI, AIG is no longer subject to the consolidated supervision of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (FRB) or subject to the enhanced prudential standards set forth in Dodd-Frank and its implementing regulations. Although the Council has rescinded its designation of AIG as a nonbank SIFI, certain provisions of Dodd-Frank remain relevant to insurance groups generally.

•      The Council has authority to determine, subject to certain statutory and regulatory standards, that any nonbank financial company be designated as a nonbank SIFI subject to supervision by the FRB and enhanced prudential standards. The Council may also recommend that state insurance regulators or other regulators apply new or heightened standards and safeguards for activities or practices that nonbank financial services companies, including insurers, engage in.

•      Title II of Dodd-Frank (Orderly Liquidation Authority) provides that a financial company whose largest United States subsidiary is an insurer may be subject to a special orderly liquidation process outside the Bankruptcy Code. That process is to be administered by the FDIC upon a determination that the company is: (i) in default or in danger of default, (ii) would have serious adverse effects on U.S. financial stability were it to fail and be resolved, (iii) is not likely to attract private sector alternatives to default and (iv) is not suitable for resolution under the Bankruptcy Code. Dodd-Frank authorizes possible assessments to cover the costs of any special resolution of a financial company conducted under Title II. U.S. insurance subsidiaries of any such financial company, however, would be subject to rehabilitation and liquidation proceedings under state insurance law.

•      Title VII of Dodd-Frank provides for significantly increased regulation of and restrictions on derivatives markets and transactions that have affected and, as additional regulations come into effect, could affect various activities of insurance and other financial services companies, including (i) regulatory reporting for swaps and security-based swaps, (ii) mandated clearing through central counterparties and execution through regulated swap execution facilities for certain swaps and security-based swaps and (iii) margin and collateral requirements.  Although the Commodities Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), which oversees and regulates the U.S. swap, commodities and futures markets, has finalized most of its requirements, the SEC has yet to finalize the majority of rules comprising its security-based swap regulatory regime. Increased regulation of and restrictions on derivatives markets and transactions could increase the cost of our trading and hedging activities, reduce liquidity and reduce the availability of customized hedging solutions and derivatives.

•      Dodd-Frank mandated a study to determine whether stable value contracts should be included in the definition of "swap." If that study concludes that stable value contracts are swaps, Dodd-Frank authorizes certain federal regulators to determine whether an exemption from the definition of a swap for stable value contracts is appropriate and in the public interest. Certain of our affiliates participate in the stable value contract business. We cannot predict what regulations might emanate from the aforementioned study or be promulgated applicable to this business in the future.

•      Title V of Dodd-Frank authorizes the United States to enter into covered agreements with foreign governments or regulatory entities regarding the business of insurance and reinsurance. On September 22, 2017, the U.S. and the European Union (EU) entered into such an agreement, and on December 18, 2018, the U.S. signed a covered agreement with the United Kingdom (UK)

in anticipation of the UK’s withdrawal of its membership in the EU, commonly referred to as Brexit. For additional information, see — International Regulation. 

•      Dodd-Frank established the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection (BCFP), an independent agency within the FRB, to regulate certain non-insurance consumer financial products and services offered primarily for personal, family or household purposes. Insurance products and services are not within the BCFP's general jurisdiction. Broker-dealers and investment advisers are not subject to the BCFP's jurisdiction when acting in their registered capacity.  

•      Dodd-Frank established the Federal Insurance Office (FIO) to serve as the central insurance authority in the federal government.  While not serving a regulatory function, FIO performs certain duties related to the business of insurance.  FIO serves as a non-voting member of the Council, has authority to collect information on the insurance industry and recommend prudential standards, monitors market access issues, represents the United States in international insurance forums, has authority to determine, after consulting with the relevant State and the United States Trade Representative, if certain regulations are preempted by covered agreements, and assists the Secretary of the Treasury in administering the Terrorism Risk Insurance Program under the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act of 2002.

On February 3, 2017, the President of the United States signed an Executive Order that directed the Secretary of the Treasury, in consultation with federal financial regulators, to assess all laws, rules and policies that regulate the U.S. financial system, including requirements put into place under Dodd-Frank since 2010, and to recommend necessary changes to make sure they conform to certain core principles.  Treasury divided its review into four parts and published four reports: Banks and Credit Unions (June 12, 2017), Capital Markets (October 6, 2017), Asset Management and Insurance (October 26, 2017) and Nonbank Financials, Fintech and Innovation (July 31, 2018). In its report on insurance regulation, Treasury identified several areas for improvement at the federal and state levels and defined the role it intends for federal agencies.  Among the points made in the report:

•      Treasury expressed support for an activities-based approach to regulating systemic risk in the insurance industry rather than designating individual entities;

•      Treasury recommended continued U.S. engagement in international standard-setting forums and charged FIO with coordinating the efforts of the federal government, state regulators, the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC), and other stakeholders on the issues within its scope, such as covered agreements, matters related to the Terrorism Risk Insurance Program, and standard-setting at the International Association of Insurance Supervisors (IAIS), including discussions regarding capital and liquidity requirements;

•      Treasury expressed support for robust liquidity risk management programs for insurers and encouraged regulators to continue work on addressing potential liquidity risk in the insurance sector; and

•      Treasury supported the Department of Labor (the DOL) in delaying full implementation of the final fiduciary rule issued by the DOL in April 2016 (the DOL Fiduciary Rule) until relevant issues are further evaluated and addressed by the DOL, SEC, and state insurance regulators working together. The DOL Fiduciary Rule was subsequently vacated by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. For additional information regarding legislative and regulatory developments surrounding a standard of care for the sale of investment products and services, see – U.S. Regulation – ERISA and Standard of Care Developments below and Item 7. MD&A – Executive Summary – AIG’s Outlook – Industry and Economic Factors – Standard of Care Developments.  

In addition, on April 21, 2017 the President of the United States directed the Secretary of the Treasury to evaluate and provide recommendations regarding the Council’s processes for designating nonbank SIFIs. The Treasury published a report pursuant to this directive on November 17, 2017, recommending that the Council prioritize an activities-based approach to regulating systemic risk rather than designating individual entities, and recommending that the Council increase the analytical rigor of its designation analyses, enhance engagement with relevant regulators and transparency to the public, and provide a clear off-ramp to designated nonbank SIFIs. The Council has begun discussions regarding potential amendments to its guidance on nonbank financial company designations related to an activities-based approach to monitoring and addressing potential systemic risk. We will monitor developments resulting from these recommendations and discussions closely.

Insurance Regulation

Certain states and other jurisdictions require registration and periodic reporting by (re)insurance companies that are licensed in such jurisdictions and are controlled by other entities. Applicable legislation typically requires periodic disclosure concerning the entity that controls the registered insurer and the other companies in the holding company system and prior approval of intercompany transactions and transfers of assets, including in some instances payment of dividends by the (re)insurance subsidiary, within the holding company system. This legislation also requires any person or entity desiring to purchase more than a specified percentage (commonly 10 percent) of our outstanding voting securities to obtain regulatory approval prior to such purchase. Our subsidiaries are registered under such legislation in those jurisdictions that have such requirements.

Our U.S. (re)insurance subsidiaries are subject to regulation and supervision by the states and other jurisdictions in which they do business. The method of such regulation varies but generally has its source in statutes that delegate regulatory and supervisory

powers to a state insurance official. The regulation and supervision relate primarily to the financial condition of the insurers and their corporate conduct and market conduct activities. This includes approval of policy forms and rates, the standards of solvency that must be met and maintained, including with respect to risk-based capital, the standards on transactions between (re)insurance company subsidiaries and their affiliates, including restrictions and limitations on the amount of dividends or other distributions payable by (re)insurance company subsidiaries to their parent companies, the licensing of insurers and their agents, restrictions on the size of risks that may be insured under a single policy, deposits of securities for the benefit of policyholders, requirements for acceptability of reinsurers, periodic examinations of the affairs of (re)insurance companies, the form and content of reports of financial condition required to be filed, reserves for unearned premiums, losses and other purposes and enterprise risk management and corporate governance requirements. Our (re)insurance subsidiaries are also subject to requirements on investments, which prescribe the kind, quality and concentration of investments they can make. In general, such regulation is for the protection of policyholders rather than the creditors or equity owners of these companies.

U.S. states have state insurance guaranty associations in which insurers doing business in the state are required by law to be members. Member insurers may be assessed by the associations for certain obligations of insolvent insurance companies to policyholders and claimants. Typically, states assess member insurers in amounts related to the member’s proportionate share of the relevant type of business written by all members in the state. The protection afforded by a state’s guaranty association to policyholders of insolvent insurers varies from state to state.

In the U.S., the NAIC is a standard-setting and regulatory support organization created and governed by the chief insurance regulators from the 50 states, the District of Columbia and five U.S. territories. The NAIC itself is not a regulator, but, with assistance from the NAIC, state insurance regulators establish standards and best practices, conduct peer review and coordinate regulatory oversight. Every state has adopted, in substantial part, the Risk-Based Capital (RBC) Model Law promulgated by the NAIC or a substantially similar law, which allows states to act upon the results of RBC calculations, and provides four incremental levels of regulatory action regarding insurers whose RBC calculations fall below specific thresholds. Those levels of action range from the requirement to submit a plan describing how an insurer would regain a specified RBC ratio to a mandatory regulatory takeover of the company. The RBC formula is designed to measure the adequacy of an insurer’s statutory surplus in relation to the risks inherent in its business and computes a risk-adjusted surplus level by applying discrete factors to various asset, premium, reserve and other financial statement items. These factors are developed to be risk-sensitive so that higher factors are applied to items exposed to greater risk. The statutory surplus of each of our U.S. based (re)insurance companies exceeded RBC minimum required levels as of December 31, 2018.

If any of our (re)insurance entities fell below prescribed levels of statutory surplus, it would be our intention to provide appropriate capital or other types of support to that entity. For additional information, see Item 7. MD&A – Liquidity and Capital Resources – Liquidity and Capital Resources of AIG Parent and Subsidiaries – Insurance Companies.

The NAIC’s Model Regulation “Valuation of Life Insurance Policies” (Regulation XXX) requires insurers to establish additional statutory reserves for term life insurance policies with long-term premium guarantees and universal life policies with secondary guarantees (ULSGs). NAIC Actuarial Guideline 38 (Guideline AXXX) clarifies the application of Regulation XXX as to these guarantees, including certain ULSGs. See Item 1A. Risk Factors and Note 18 to the Consolidated Financial Statements for risks and additional information related to these statutory reserving requirements. In December 2012, the NAIC approved a new valuation manual containing a principle-based approach to life insurance company reserves. Principle-based reserving (PBR) is designed to tailor the reserving process to specific products in an effort to create a principle-based modeling approach to reserving rather than the factor-based approach historically employed. PBR became effective on January 1, 2017, after the NAIC’s model Standard Valuation Law was enacted by the requisite number of states representing the required premium volume, replacing Regulation XXX and Guideline AXXX with respect to new life insurance business issued after that date. Two of our domiciliary states (Missouri and Texas) have adopted the regulations necessary to implement PBR. On December 10, 2018, a third domiciliary state (New York) adopted an emergency regulation to begin the implementation of PBR for regulated life insurers. We have up to three years after January 1, 2017 to implement PBR, and have currently elected to defer implementation.

The NAIC’s Insurance Holding Company System Regulatory Act (the Model Holding Company Act) and the Insurance Holding Company System Model Regulation include (i) provisions authorizing NAIC commissioners to act as global group-wide supervisors for internationally active insurance groups and participate in international supervisory colleges, and (ii) the requirement that the ultimate controlling person of a U.S. insurer file an annual enterprise risk report with its lead state regulator identifying risks likely to have a material adverse effect upon the financial condition or liquidity of its licensed insurers or the insurance holding company system as a whole. All of the states where AIG has domestic insurers have enacted a version of the revised Model Holding Company Act, including the enterprise risk reporting requirement.

The NAIC’s Risk Management and Own Risk and Solvency Assessment Model Act (ORSA) requires that insurers maintain a risk management framework and conduct an internal own risk and solvency assessment of the insurer’s material risks in normal and stressed environments. All of the states where AIG has domestic insurers have enacted a version of ORSA.

ERISA and Standard of Care Developments

We provide products and services that are subject to the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974, as amended (ERISA), or the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended (the Internal Revenue Code).  Plans subject to ERISA include certain pension and profit sharing plans and welfare plans, including health, life and disability plans.  As a result, our activities are subject to the restrictions imposed by ERISA and the Internal Revenue Code, including the requirement under ERISA that fiduciaries must perform their duties solely in the interests of ERISA plan participants and beneficiaries, and that fiduciaries may not cause a covered plan to engage in certain prohibited transactions. 

Certain of our retirement products and services were also subject to the DOL Fiduciary Rule before the final rule was formally vacated by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit (the Fifth Circuit) on March 15, 2018 with the Fifth Circuit ruling that the DOL exceeded its authority in promulgating the DOL Fiduciary Rule, specifically in its broadening of the scope of fiduciary “investment advice” under ERISA and in the terms of the best interest contract exemption. As the Fifth Circuit’s final judgment was not further appealed, the ruling has the effect of invalidating the DOL Fiduciary Rule in its entirety. While the DOL has indicated that it plans to issue in September 2019 a revised final fiduciary rule package to replace the DOL Fiduciary Rule vacated by the Fifth Circuit, we cannot predict at this time the scope or substance of the new regulation that may be ultimately promulgated by the DOL or the impact such regulation may have on our businesses and operations.

In addition to the DOL, the SEC, federal and state lawmakers and state insurance regulators continue their efforts to evaluate what is an appropriate regulatory framework around a standard of care for the sale of investment products and services. On April 18, 2018, the SEC proposed a package of proposed rules and interpretations designed to address standard of care issues and the transparency of retail investors’ relationships with investment advisors and broker-dealers. On July 18, 2018, the New York State Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) adopted a best interest standard of care regulation applicable to annuity and life transactions through issuance of the First Amendment to Insurance Regulation 187 – Suitability and Best Interests in Life Insurance and Annuity Transactions (Regulation 187).

For additional information regarding these developments, see Item 7. MD&A – Executive Summary – AIG’s Outlook – Industry and Economic Factors –Standard of Care Developments.

Investment Adviser, Broker-Dealer and Investment Company Regulation

Our investment products and services are subject to federal and state securities, fiduciary, including ERISA, and other laws and regulations. The SEC, Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), CFTC, state securities commissions, state insurance departments and the DOL are the principal U.S. regulators of these operations.

The subsidiaries that manage the operations of our investment products and services are registered as investment advisers with the SEC under the Investment Advisers Act of 1940 (the Investment Advisers Act) and are required to supervise the activities of their personnel. Our affiliates that offer interests in insurance company separate accounts, mutual funds and other pooled investment products, and that provide other financial services to customers, are registered as broker-dealers and/or investment advisors with the SEC under the Exchange Act or the Investment Advisors Act, with certain states, and/or are also members of FINRA, as applicable. Our broker-dealer subsidiaries and their personnel are subject to examination by the SEC, FINRA, and the states for compliance with law, and certain personnel of these broker-dealers are also required to pass qualification examinations. The investment products that are offered by our affiliates may be registered under the Securities Act, which regulates disclosure regarding the products, and/or the Investment Company of 1940, which imposes substantive regulation on the structure and governance of the products, as well as being subject to insurance regulation in the case of separate accounts. Some products may also be qualified for sale in various states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico.

Our subsidiary, AlphaCat Managers Ltd., is a licensed insurance manager and is registered as an investment adviser with the SEC under the Investment Advisers Act. AlphaCat Managers Ltd. is also registered as a “commodity pool operator” with the CFTC and is a member of the National Futures Association.

For additional information regarding legislative and regulatory developments surrounding a standard of care for the sale of investment products and services, see Item 7. MD&A – Executive Summary – AIG’s Outlook – Industry and Economic Factors – Standard of Care Developments.

Privacy, Data Protection and Cybersecurity

We are subject to U.S. laws and regulations that require financial institutions and other businesses to protect the security and confidentiality of personal and other sensitive information and provide notice of their practices relating to the collection and disclosure of personal information. We also are subject to laws and regulations requiring notification to affected individuals and regulators of security breaches.

In October 2017, the NAIC adopted the Insurance Data Security Model Law (NAIC Model Law), which would require insurers, insurance producers and other entities required to be licensed under state insurance laws to develop and maintain a written information security program, conduct risk assessments, oversee the data security practices of third-party service providers and other related requirements. Legislation based on the NAIC Model Law has been enacted in South Carolina, Ohio and Michigan, and may be enacted in other states.

Effective March 1, 2017, the NYDFS promulgated a cybersecurity regulation requiring covered financial services institutions to implement a cybersecurity program designed to protect information systems. The regulation imposes specific technical safeguards as well as governance, risk assessment, monitoring and testing, third party service provider incident response and reporting and other requirements. The regulation sets forth transitional periods for compliance with different sections of the regulation through early 2019. AIG companies covered by the regulation periodically file certifications of compliance with the requirements in force at the time of each such filing. Requirements under the NYDFS’ cybersecurity regulation are similar to those under the NAIC Model Law, with some differences.

In 2018, California enacted the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 (CCPA), which will go into effect in 2020. The CCPA contains a number of new requirements regarding the personal information of California consumers as defined by the statute, including new individual rights and mandatory disclosures regarding consumers’ personal information. The statute also establishes a private right of action in some cases if consumers’ personal information is subject to a data breach as a result of a business’ failure to implement and maintain reasonable security practices.

For information on privacy, data protection and cybersecurity regulation in the EU and other international jurisdictions, see International Regulation – Privacy, Data Protection and Cybersecurity.

Thrift Regulator

AIG Federal Savings Bank, our trust-only federal thrift subsidiary, is supervised and regulated by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency.

INTERNATIONAL REGULATION

Insurance Regulation

A substantial portion of our business is conducted in foreign countries. The degree of regulation and supervision in foreign jurisdictions varies. Generally, our subsidiaries operating in foreign jurisdictions must satisfy local regulatory requirements; licenses issued by foreign authorities to our subsidiaries are subject to modification or revocation by such authorities, and therefore these subsidiaries could be prevented from conducting business in certain of the jurisdictions where they currently operate.

Certain jurisdictions require registration and periodic reporting by (re)insurance companies that are licensed in such jurisdictions and are controlled by other entities. Applicable legislation typically requires periodic disclosure concerning the entity that controls the registered insurer and the other companies in the holding company system and prior approval of intercompany transactions and transfers of assets, including in some instances payment of dividends by the (re)insurance subsidiary within the holding company system. Our subsidiaries are registered under such legislation in those jurisdictions that have such requirements.

In addition to these licensing and other requirements, our foreign operations are also regulated in various jurisdictions with respect to currency, policy language and terms, advertising, amount and type of security deposits, amount and type of reserves, amount and type of capital to be held, amount and type of local investment and the share of profits to be returned to policyholders on participating policies. Our foreign operations are subject to local tax laws and regulations as well. Some foreign countries regulate rates on various types of policies. Certain countries have established reinsurance institutions, wholly or partially owned by the local government, to which admitted insurers are obligated to cede a portion of their business on terms that may not always allow foreign insurers, including our subsidiaries, full compensation. In some countries, regulations governing constitution of technical reserves and remittance balances may hinder remittance of profits and repatriation of assets.

Legislation in the EU could also affect our international (re)insurance operations. The EU issues Directives and Regulations on a wide range of topics that impact financial services. Insurance companies operating in the EU are subject to the Solvency II framework. The Prudential Regulation Authority, the United Kingdom’s (UK’s) prudential regulator, is the lead prudential supervisor  for our new UK entity, AIG UK. The UK’s Financial Conduct Authority has oversight of AIG UK for consumer protection and competition matters. The Luxembourg insurance regulator, the Commissariat aux Assurances (the CAA) is the insurance regulator for AIG Europe SA, which serves our European Economic Area (EEA) and Swiss policyholders. For information on the UK’s pending withdrawal of its membership in the EU, see —Brexit. In addition, financial companies that operate in the EU are subject to a range of regulations enforced by the national regulators in each member state in which that firm operates. The EU has also established a set of regulatory requirements under the European Market Infrastructure Regulation (EMIR) that include, among other things, risk mitigation, risk

management, regulatory reporting and clearing requirements. Solvency II governs the insurance industry’s solvency framework, including minimum capital and solvency requirements, governance requirements, risk management and public reporting standards. In accordance with Solvency II, the European Commission is required to make a determination as to whether a supervisory regime outside of the EU is “equivalent.”

On September 22, 2017, the U.S. Treasury Department and the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, on behalf of the U.S., and the EU signed the bilateral Covered Agreement, which is intended to address issues regarding the application of Solvency II requirements to U.S.-based insurance groups as well as other (re)insurance regulatory issues. Certain aspects of the agreement remain subject to an implementation timetable in the U.S. and the EU, which may delay or even prevent the agreement from being fully implemented. In particular, the U.S. states have been given a period of five years to comply with the agreement’s reinsurance collateral provisions. After 42 months, FIO must begin evaluating a potential preemption determination with respect to any state law not in compliance with the aim of assuring full compliance within the five-year timeframe. The agreement may be terminated (following mandatory consultation) by notice from one party to the other effective in 180 days, or at such time as the parties may agree.

Under the agreement, AIG will be supervised at the worldwide group level only by its relevant U.S. insurance supervisors, and will not have to satisfy EU Solvency II group capital, reporting and governance requirements for its worldwide group. The agreement, however, would permit the imposition of EU Solvency II group capital requirements if, after five years from the signing of the agreement, a U.S. insurer is not subject to a group capital assessment by its applicable state regulator. The NAIC is in the process of developing a group capital calculation that, once adopted by the states, is expected to satisfy this condition. The agreement further provides that if the summary risk reports submitted to the supervisory authority of a host jurisdiction expose any serious threat to policyholder protection or financial stability in such host state, the host supervisor may request further information from the insurance group and/or impose preventive or corrective measures with respect to the (re)insurer in its jurisdiction. The agreement also seeks to impose equal treatment of U.S. and EU-based reinsurers that meet certain qualifications. In the U.S., once fully implemented, the agreement requires U.S. states to lift reinsurance collateral requirements on qualifying EU-based reinsurers and provide them equal treatment with U.S. reinsurers or be subject to federal preemption. While this provision does not preclude AIG from continuing to request collateral from an EU reinsurer that is party to a bilateral reinsurance transaction, it is unclear how much collateral AIG will be able to obtain from EU reinsurers going forward.

On December 18, 2018, the U.S. Treasury Department and the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative signed the Bilateral Agreement between the U.S. and the UK on Prudential Measures Regarding Insurance and Reinsurance (the U.S.-UK Covered Agreement). The terms of the agreement are substantially similar to the U.S.-EU Covered Agreement. The agreement has been entered into in order to maintain regulatory certainty and market continuity as the UK prepares to leave the EU. The agreement is still subject to U.S. and UK internal requirements and procedures, including a 90 day Congressional notification period in the U.S. In addition, the agreement notes with respect to the date of entry into force that the UK must take into account its obligations arising in respect of any agreement between the EU and the UK pursuant to Article 50 of the Treaty on European Union, which sets out the process under which an EU member state may withdraw from the EU.

The Bermuda Monetary Authority (the BMA) regulates AIG’s operating (re)insurance subsidiaries in Bermuda. The Insurance Act 1978 and its related regulations (as amended, the Insurance Act), as enforced by the BMA, impose a variety of requirements and restrictions on our Bermuda operating (re)insurance subsidiaries including: the filing of annual statutory financial returns; the filing of annual GAAP financial statements; compliance with minimum enhanced capital requirements; compliance with the BMA’s Insurance Code of Conduct; compliance with minimum solvency margins and liquidity ratios; limitations on dividends and distributions; preparation of an annual Financial Condition Report providing details of measures governing the business operations, corporate governance framework, solvency and financial performance; and restrictions on certain changes in control of regulated (re)insurers.

Privacy, Data Protection and Cybersecurity

The EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) took effect in May 2018. The GDPR aims to introduce consistent data protection rules across the EU, and its scope extends to entities established within the EEA (i.e., EU member states plus Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway) and also extends to certain entities not established in the EEA (in certain instances, if they process personal data of or offer goods or services to EEA data subjects, or monitor the behavior of EEA data subjects (e.g., in an online context)).

We are addressing the new requirements regarding the processing of personal data about individuals, including mandatory security breach reporting, new and strengthened individual rights, evidenced data controller accountability for compliance with the GDPR principles (including fairness and transparency), maintenance of data processing activity records and the implementation of “privacy by design”, including through the completion of mandatory Data Protection Impact Assessments in connection with higher risk data processing activities. Sanctions for non-compliance with the GDPR are more onerous than the previous regulatory regime with the potential for fines of up to 4 percent of global revenue for the most serious infringements.

We also are subject to other international laws and regulations that require financial institutions and other businesses to protect the security and confidentiality of personal and other sensitive information and provide notice of their practices relating to the collection

and disclosure of personal information, and to international laws and regulations requiring notification to affected individuals and regulators of security breaches. In addition, we must comply with laws and regulations regarding the cross-border transfer of information.

For additional information on U.S. privacy, data protection and cybersecurity regulation, see U.S. Regulation – Privacy, Data Protection and Cybersecurity.

FSB and IAIS

The Financial Stability Board (FSB) consists of representatives of national financial authorities of the G20 countries. The FSB itself is not a regulator but is focused primarily on promoting international financial stability. It does so by coordinating the work of national financial authorities and international standard-setting bodies as well as developing and promoting the implementation of regulatory, supervisory and other financial policies. The FSB has issued a series of frameworks and recommendations intended to produce significant changes in how financial companies, particularly global systemically important financial institutions, should be regulated. These frameworks and recommendations address such issues as systemic financial risk, financial group supervision, capital and solvency standards, corporate governance including compensation, and a number of related issues associated with responses to the financial crisis.

The IAIS represents insurance regulators and supervisors of more than 200 jurisdictions (including regions and states) in nearly 140 countries and seeks to promote globally consistent insurance industry supervision. The IAIS itself is not a regulator, but one of its activities is to develop insurance regulatory standards for use by local authorities across the globe. The FSB has charged the IAIS with developing a framework for measuring systemic risks posed by insurance groups and has directed the IAIS to create standards relative to many of the areas of focus of the FSB, which go beyond the IAIS’ basic Insurance Core Principles. The IAIS is developing ComFrame, a Common Framework for the Supervision of Internationally Active Insurance Groups (IAIGs). ComFrame sets out qualitative and quantitative standards in order to assist supervisors in collectively addressing an IAIG’s activities and risks, identifying and avoiding regulatory gaps and coordinating supervisory activities. ComFrame is expected to include standards for group supervision, governance and internal controls, enterprise risk management, and recovery and resolution planning. Also in connection with ComFrame, the IAIS is in the process of developing a risk-based global insurance capital standard (ICS) applicable to IAIGs.  We currently meet the parameters set forth to define an IAIG. ComFrame standards are expected to be finalized in 2019. Following completion of field testing in 2019, the IAIS will put forward ICS version 2.0 for implementation in 2020. Implementation of ICS version 2.0 will consist of two phases: (1) a five year monitoring phase in which ICS version 2.0 will be used for confidential reporting to group-wide supervisors and discussion in supervisory colleges; and (2) an implementation phase whereby the ICS will be applied as a group-wide prescribed capital requirement at which point results will be used as the basis for supervisory action. Confidential reporting of ICS version 2.0 will include reporting by IAIGs of a standard formula based on market adjusted valuation and the option, at the discretion of the group-wide supervisor, of additional ICS reporting based on GAAP with adjustments and/or an internal model based-calculation. In recognition of U.S. Federal Reserve and NAIC plans to develop an “aggregation method” for group capital, the IAIS has agreed to aid in the development of - and collect data from jurisdictions that are party to - the aggregation method. Although the aggregation method will not be part of ICS version 2.0, the IAIS aims to be in a position at the end of the monitoring phase to determine whether the aggregated approach provides substantially the same outcome as the ICS, in which case it could be incorporated into the ICS as an outcome-equivalent approach.

In February 2017, the IAIS announced the adoption of a three-year systemic risk assessment and policy workplan due to be finalized by year-end 2019. This initiative is comprised of a new macroprudential activities-based approach (ABA) to regulating systemic risk which will be developed in conjunction with the IAIS’ previously announced work in finalizing ComFrame, including the ICS, as well as any improvements to the methodology for identifying global systemically important insurers (G-SIIs). Based on the IAIS’ G-SII assessment methodology, since July 2013 the FSB has published an annual list of G-SIIs, which has included us. However, on November 30, 2017 the FSB announced that it would not be proceeding with the publication of a G-SII list for 2017 in light of the IAIS’ development of the ABA and its implications for the assessment of systemic risk in insurance and, by extension, the identification of G-SIIs and related policy measures for G-SIIs. On November 14, 2018, the FSB announced that, in light of IAIS progress in developing a proposed holistic framework for the assessment and mitigation of potential systemic risk in the insurance sector, inclusive of the ABA as a key component of the framework, it has decided not to engage in an identification of G-SIIs in 2018. In its public consultation on the holistic framework, issued on November 14, 2018, the IAIS noted that, in its view, the implementation of the holistic framework would obviate the need for the FSB’s annual G-SII identification process. The FSB stated that it will (i) assess the IAIS’s recommendation to suspend G-SII identification from 2020, once the holistic framework is finalized in November 2019; and (ii) in November 2022, based on the initial years of implementation of the holistic framework, review the need to either discontinue or re-establish an annual identification of G-SIIs.

The standards issued by the FSB and/or the IAIS are not binding on the United States or other jurisdictions around the world unless and until the appropriate local governmental bodies or regulators adopt laws and regulations implementing such standards. At this

time, it is not known how the IAIS’ frameworks and/or standards might be implemented in the United States and other jurisdictions around the world, or how they might apply to us.

Brexit

On June 23, 2016, the UK held a referendum in which a majority voted for the UK to withdraw its membership in the EU, commonly referred to as Brexit. The terms of withdrawal remain uncertain, with the draft withdrawal agreement having to date been rejected by the UK Parliament. There can be no assurance that a withdrawal agreement will be reached prior to Brexit.

AIG has significant operations and employees in the UK and other EU member states. Prior to December 1, 2018, our General Insurance business operated through AIG Europe Limited (AEL), a UK-incorporated insurer with branches across the EEA. These branches operated through the EU concept of Freedom of Establishment, which allows an insurer in any member state to establish branch operations in any other member state but with a single capital pool and a single prudential regulator (which in this case was the UK’s Prudential Regulation Authority as AEL was UK-authorized). In addition, the various establishments of AEL were able to sell insurance products across borders into other member states under the EU principle of Freedom of Services. In the event that the UK leaves the EU without a withdrawal agreement in place, or in the event that a withdrawal agreement does not preserve access to these EU freedoms for UK insurers, AEL would be severely constrained in its ability to utilize and benefit from such freedoms. UK government policy has not been to pursue continued UK membership of the EU single market and so even if the UK and EU are able to settle on a withdrawal agreement, it is unlikely that AEL’s structure would have remained efficient beyond any proposed temporary transitional period.

As a result, in order to adapt to and be prepared ahead of Brexit, on December 1, 2018, we completed a reorganization of our operations and legal entity structure in the UK and the EU through the establishment of a new European subsidiary in Luxembourg, AIG Europe S.A. (AESA), which has branches across the EEA and Switzerland, and a new UK subsidiary, American International Group UK Limited (AIG UK). Business written by AEL’s branches in the remaining EEA countries was transferred to AESA, along with business previously written on a Freedom of Services basis from AEL’s UK operations. The remaining business written by AEL’s UK operations was transferred to AIG UK and AEL was merged into AESA, allowing AIG to operate in both the EEA and UK on a standalone basis

This reorganization addresses the uncertainty for UK insurers generated by Brexit because it ensures that even in the event that no agreement is reached between the UK and EU in this sector, AIG will be able to continue to service and pay claims on existing policies, and write new and renewal business where the insured risk is located in the remaining EEA countries. AIG continues to monitor, adapt to and prepare for other risks relating to a “no deal” Brexit that could impact its business including, for example, the effect on the wider UK and EU economies and on investments, legislative changes, updates to policy wording that may become necessary and other specific areas such as the issuance of additional documentation to motorists it insures who travel cross border.

Derivatives

Regulation of and restrictions on derivatives markets and transactions have been proposed or adopted outside the United States. For instance, the EU has also established a set of new regulatory requirements for EU derivatives activities under EMIR. These requirements include, among other things, various risk mitigation, risk management, margin posting, regulatory reporting and, for certain categories of derivatives, clearing requirements. Aside from certain margin obligations, these requirements are now in force. There remains the possibility of increased administrative costs with respect to our EU derivatives activities and overlapping or inconsistent regulation depending on the ultimate application of cross-border regulatory requirements between and among U.S. and non-U.S. jurisdictions.

Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID) II

The Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID II) and Markets in Financial Instruments Regulation took effect in Europe on January 3, 2018. MiFID II and the related regulations are intended to create transparency in market trading by, for example, imposing trade and transaction reporting and other requirements. AIG Asset Management (Europe) Limited (AAMEL) has and continues to implement new policies, procedures and reporting protocols required to ensure compliance with this legislation and its related rules.

Our corporate website is www.aig.com. We make available free of charge, through the Investor Information section of our corporate website, the following reports (and related amendments as filed with the SEC) as soon as reasonably practicable after such materials are electronically filed with, or furnished to, the SEC:

•      Annual Reports on Form 10-K

•      Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q

•      Current Reports on Form 8-K

•      Proxy Statements on Schedule 14A, as well as other filings with the SEC

Also available on our corporate website:

•      Charters for Board Committees: Audit, Nominating and Corporate Governance, Compensation and Management Resources, Risk and Capital, and Technology Committees

•      Corporate Governance Guidelines (which include Director Independence Standards) 

•      Director, Executive Officer and Senior Financial Officer Code of Business Conduct and Ethics (we will post on our website any amendment or waiver to this Code within the time period required by the SEC)

•      Employee Code of Conduct

•      Related‑Party Transactions Approval Policy

Except for the documents specifically incorporated by reference into this Annual Report on Form 10-K, information contained on our website or that can be accessed through our website is not incorporated by reference into this Annual Report on Form 10-K. Reference to our website is made as an inactive textual reference.

 

ITEM 1A | Risk Factors  

Investing in AIG involves risk. In deciding whether to invest in AIG, you should carefully consider the following risk factors. Any of these risk factors could have a significant or material adverse effect on our businesses, results of operations, financial condition or liquidity. They could also cause significant fluctuations and volatility in the trading price of our securities. Readers should not consider any descriptions of these factors to be a complete set of all potential risks that could affect AIG. These factors should be considered carefully together with the other information contained in this report and the other reports and materials filed by us with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Further, many of these risks are interrelated and could occur under similar business and economic conditions, and the occurrence of certain of them may in turn cause the emergence or exacerbate the effect of others. Such a combination could materially increase the severity of the impact of these risks on our businesses, results of operations, financial condition and liquidity.

MARKET CONDITIONS

Deterioration of economic conditions, geopolitical tensions or weakening in global capital markets may materially affect our businesses, results of operations, financial condition and liquidity.  Our businesses are highly dependent on global economic and market conditions. Weaknesses in economic conditions and the capital markets and market volatility have in the past led, and may in the future lead, to a poor operating environment, erosion of consumer and investor confidence, reduced business volumes, deteriorating liquidity and declines in asset valuations. Adverse economic conditions may result from global economic and political developments, including plateauing business activity and inflationary pressures in developed economies, uncertainty surrounding China’s ability to successfully maintain growth, the effects of Brexit (as defined below) on business investment, hiring, migration and labor supply and intensifying trade protectionism. These and other market, economic, and political factors could have a material adverse effect on our businesses, results of operations, financial condition and liquidity in many ways, including (i) lower levels of consumer and commercial business activities that could decrease revenues and profitability and decrease value in goodwill, deferred tax assets and other long-term assets, (ii) increases in credit spreads and defaults that could reduce investment asset valuations, increase credit losses across numerous asset classes, and increase statutory capital requirements and (iii) increased market volatility and uncertainty that could decrease liquidity and increase borrowing costs. Other ways in which we could be negatively affected by economic conditions include, but are not limited to: increases in policy surrenders and cancellations; write-offs of deferred policy acquisition costs; increases in liability for future policy benefits due to loss recognition on certain long-duration insurance and reinsurance contracts; and increases in expenses associated with third-party reinsurance, or decreased ability to obtain reinsurance at acceptable terms.

Sustained low interest rates, or rapidly increasing interest rates, may materially and adversely affect our profitability.  Although interest rates have been rising recently, particularly in the United States, rates remain low relative to historical levels. Sustained low interest rates can negatively affect the performance of our investment securities and reduce the level of investment income earned on our investment portfolios. If a low interest rate environment persists, we may experience lower investment income. Due to practical and capital markets limitations, we may not be able to fully mitigate our interest rate risk by matching exposure of our assets relative to our liabilities. Continued low interest rates could also impair our ability to earn the returns assumed in the pricing and the reserving for our products at the time they were sold and issued. Changes in interest rates may be correlated with inflation trends, which would impact our loss trends.

On the other hand, in periods of rapidly increasing interest rates, we may not be able to replace, in a timely manner, the investments in our general account with higher yielding investments needed to fund the higher crediting rates necessary to keep interest rate sensitive products competitive. Therefore, we may have to accept a lower investment spread and, thus, lower profitability or face a decline in sales and greater loss of existing contracts and related assets. In addition, policy loans, surrenders and withdrawals tend to increase as policyholders seek investments with higher perceived returns as interest rates rise. This process may result in cash outflows requiring that we sell investments at a time when the prices of those investments are adversely affected by the increase in interest rates. This may result in realized investment losses. An increase in interest rates could also have a material adverse effect on the value of our investment portfolio, for example, by decreasing the estimated fair values of the fixed income securities that comprise a substantial portion of our investment portfolio. This in turn could adversely affect our ability to realize our deferred tax assets.

Reserves and Exposures

Insurance and reinsurance liabilities are difficult to predict and may exceed the related reserves for losses and loss expenses. We regularly review the adequacy of the established loss reserves and conduct extensive analyses of our reserves during the year. Our loss reserves, however, may develop adversely and materially impact our businesses, results of operations, financial condition and liquidity.

For General Insurance, estimation of ultimate net losses, loss expenses and loss reserves is a complex process, particularly for long-tail liability lines of business. These lines include, but are not limited to, general liability, commercial automobile liability, environmental, workers' compensation, excess casualty and crisis management coverages, insurance and risk management programs for large corporate customers and other customized structured insurance products, as well as excess and umbrella liability, errors and omissions, products liability, programs and specialty. There is also greater uncertainty in establishing reserves with respect to new business, particularly new business that is generated with respect to more recently introduced product lines. In these cases, there is less historical experience or knowledge and less data upon which the actuaries can rely. Estimating reserves is further complicated by unexpected claims or unintended coverages that emerge due to changing conditions. These emerging issues may increase the size or number of claims beyond our underwriting intent and may not become apparent for many years after a policy is issued.

While we use a number of analytical reserve development techniques to project future loss development, reserves have been and may be significantly affected by changes in loss cost trends or loss development factors that were relied upon in setting the reserves. For example, in 2018, 2017 and 2016, we recorded pre-tax net charges of $1.4 billion, $1.6 billion and $5.8 billion, respectively, to strengthen our General Insurance loss reserves, reflecting adverse development in classes of business with long reporting tails, primarily in Casualty and Financial Lines. These changes in loss cost trends or loss development factors could be due to changes in actual versus expected claims and losses, difficulties in predicting changes, such as changes in inflation, unemployment duration, or other social or economic factors affecting claims, including judicial and legislative approaches. Any deviation in loss cost trends or in loss development factors might not be identified for an extended period of time after we record the initial loss reserve estimates for any accident year or number of years.

For Life and Retirement, experience may develop adversely such that additional reserves must be established. Adverse experience could arise out of a severe short term event such as a pandemic, or due to misestimation of long-term assumptions such as mortality improvement and interest rate assumptions. While mortality experience is relatively stable due to the large amount of historical data available, assumptions in respect of other variables, such as policyholder behavior can be more difficult to estimate and may have a significant impact on reserves. Life and Retirement reserves and assumptions are reviewed regularly and loss recognition testing and cash flow testing is carried out annually.

For a further discussion of our loss reserves see Item 7. MD&A — Critical Accounting Estimates — Insurance Liabilities — Loss Reserves and Insurance Reserves — Loss Reserves and Note 13 to the Consolidated Financial Statements.

Our consolidated results of operations, liquidity, financial condition and ratings are subject to the effects of natural and man-made catastrophic events. Events such as hurricanes, windstorms, flooding, earthquakes, wildfires, solar storms, war or other military action, acts of terrorism, explosions and fires, cyber-crimes, product defects, pandemic and other highly contagious diseases, mass torts and other catastrophes have adversely affected our business in the past and could do so in the future. For example, we had pre-tax catastrophe losses of $2.9 billion in 2018, which included losses from Hurricanes Florence and Michael, typhoons and earthquakes in Japan and mudslides and wildfires in California. 

In addition, we recognize the scientific consensus that climate change is a reality of increasing concern, indicated by higher concentrations of greenhouse gases, a warming atmosphere and ocean, diminished snow and ice, and sea level rise. We understand that climate change potentially poses a serious financial threat to society as a whole, with implications for the insurance industry in areas such as catastrophe risk perception, pricing and modeling assumptions, particularly if the frequency and severity of natural catastrophic events continue to increase. Because there is significant variability associated with the impacts of climate change, we cannot predict how physical, legal, regulatory and social responses may impact our business. 

Catastrophic events, and any relevant regulations, could expose us to:

•      widespread claim costs associated with property, workers’ compensation, A&H, business interruption and mortality and morbidity claims;

•      loss resulting from a decline in the value of our invested assets;

•      limitations on our ability to recover deferred tax assets;

•      loss resulting from actual policy experience that is adverse compared to the assumptions made in product pricing;

•      declines in value and/or losses with respect to companies and other entities whose securities we hold and counterparties we transact business with and have credit exposure to, including reinsurers, and declines in the value of investments; and

•      significant disruptions to our physical infrastructure, systems and operations.

Natural and man-made catastrophic events are generally unpredictable. Our exposure to catastrophic-related loss depends on various factors, including the frequency and severity of the catastrophes, the rate of inflation and the value and geographic or other concentrations of insured companies and individuals. Vendor models and proprietary assumptions and processes that we use to manage catastrophe exposure may prove to be ineffective due to incorrect assumptions or estimates. 

In addition, legislative and regulatory initiatives and court decisions following major catastrophes could require us to pay the insured beyond the provisions of the original insurance policy and may prohibit the application of a deductible, resulting in inflated catastrophe claims.

For further details on potential catastrophic events, including a sensitivity analysis of our exposure to certain catastrophes, see Item 7. MD&A — Enterprise Risk Management — Insurance Risks.

Reinsurance may not be available or affordable and may not be adequate to protect us against losses. Our subsidiaries are major purchasers of third-party reinsurance and we use reinsurance as part of our overall risk management strategy. Our reinsurance business also purchases retrocessional reinsurance, which allows a reinsurer to cede to another company all or part of the reinsurance obligations originally assumed by the reinsurer. While reinsurance does not discharge our subsidiaries from their obligation to pay claims for losses insured or reinsured under our policies, it does make the reinsurer liable to the subsidiaries for the reinsured portion of the risk. For this reason, reinsurance is an important tool to manage transaction and insurance line risk retention and to mitigate losses from catastrophes. Market conditions beyond our control may impact the availability and cost of reinsurance or retrocessional reinsurance and could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial condition. For example, reinsurance may be more difficult or costly to obtain after a year with a large number of major catastrophes. We may, at certain times, be forced to incur additional costs for reinsurance or may be unable to obtain sufficient reinsurance on acceptable terms. In the latter case, we would have to accept an increase in exposure to risk, reduce the amount of business written by our subsidiaries or seek alternatives in line with our risk limits.

Additionally, we are exposed to credit risk with respect to our subsidiaries’ reinsurers to the extent the reinsurance receivable is not secured by collateral or does not benefit from other credit enhancements. We also bear the risk that a reinsurer may be unwilling to pay amounts we have recorded as reinsurance recoverables for any reason, including that (i) the terms of the reinsurance contract do not reflect the intent of the parties to the contract or there is a disagreement between the parties as to their intent, (ii) the terms of the contract cannot be legally enforced, (iii) the terms of the contract are interpreted by a court or arbitration panel differently than expected, (iv) the reinsurance transaction performs differently than we anticipated due to a flawed design of the reinsurance structure, terms or conditions, or (v) a change in laws and regulations, or in the interpretation of the laws and regulations, materially impacts a reinsurance transaction. The insolvency of one or more of our reinsurers, or inability or unwillingness to make timely payments under the terms of our contracts, could have a material adverse effect on our results of operations and liquidity.

Additionally, the use of reinsurance placed in the capital markets may not provide the same levels of protection as traditional reinsurance transactions. Any disruption, volatility and uncertainty in these markets, such as following a major catastrophic event, may limit our ability to access such markets on terms favorable to us or at all. Also, to the extent that we intend to use structures based on an industry loss index or other non-indemnity trigger rather than on actual losses incurred by us, we could be subject to residual risk.

We currently have limited reinsurance coverage for terrorist attacks. Further, the availability of private sector reinsurance for terrorism is limited. We rely heavily on the Terrorism Risk Insurance Program (TRIP), which provides U.S. government risk assistance to the insurance industry to manage the exposure to terrorism incidents in the U.S. TRIP was reauthorized in January 2015 and is scheduled to expire on December 31, 2020. Under TRIP, once our losses for certain acts of terrorism exceed a deductible equal to 20 percent of our commercial property and casualty insurance premiums for covered lines for the prior calendar year, the federal government will reimburse us for losses in excess of our deductible, starting at 85 percent of losses in 2015 (81 percent in 2019), and reducing by one percentage point each year, ending at 80 percent in 2020, up to a total industry program limit of $100 billion. TRIP does not cover losses in certain lines of business such as personal property and personal casualty. We also rely on the government sponsored and government arranged terrorism reinsurance programs, including pools, in force in applicable non-U.S. jurisdictions. There can be no assurance that TRIP will be reauthorized and extended past December 31, 2020.

For additional information on our reinsurance recoverable, see Item 7. MD&A — Enterprise Risk Management — Insurance Risks — Reinsurance Activities — Reinsurance Recoverable. 

Concentration of our insurance, reinsurance and other risk exposures may have adverse effects. We may be exposed to risks as a result of concentrations in our insurance and reinsurance policies, derivatives and other obligations that we undertake for customers and counterparties. We manage these concentration risks by monitoring the accumulation of our exposures to factors such as exposure type and size, industry, geographic region, counterparty and other factors. We also seek to use third-party reinsurance, hedging and other arrangements to limit or offset exposures that exceed the limits we wish to retain. In certain circumstances, however, these risk management arrangements may not be available on acceptable terms or may prove to be ineffective for certain exposures. Also, our exposure for certain single risk coverages and other coverages may be so large that adverse experience compared to our expectations may have a material adverse effect on our consolidated results of operations or result in additional statutory capital requirements for our subsidiaries.  

Also see Item 7. MD&A – Business Segment Operations – General Insurance – Business Strategy and  – Outlook – Industry and Economic Factors.

Interest rate fluctuations, increased lapses and surrenders, declining investment returns and other events may require our subsidiaries to accelerate the amortization of deferred policy acquisition costs (DAC) and record additional liabilities for future policy benefits. We incur significant costs in connection with acquiring new and renewal insurance business. DAC represents deferred costs that are incremental and directly related to the successful acquisition of new business or renewal of existing business. The recovery of these costs is generally dependent upon the future profitability of the related business, but DAC amortization varies based on the type of contract. For long-duration traditional business, DAC is generally amortized in proportion to premium revenue and varies with lapse experience. Actual lapses in excess of expectations can result in an acceleration of DAC amortization.

DAC for investment-oriented products is generally amortized in proportion to estimated gross profits. Estimated gross profits are affected by a number of assumptions, including current and expected interest rates, net investment income and spreads, net realized capital gains and losses, fees, surrender rates, mortality experience and equity market returns and volatility. If actual and/or future estimated gross profits are less than originally expected, then the amortization of these costs would be accelerated in the period the actual experience is known and would result in a charge to income. For example, if interest rates rise rapidly and significantly, customers with policies that have interest crediting rates below the current market may seek competing products with higher returns and we may experience an increase in surrenders and withdrawals of life and annuity contracts, resulting in a decrease in future profitability and an acceleration of the amortization of DAC.

We also periodically review products for potential loss recognition events, principally insurance-oriented products. This review involves estimating the future profitability of in-force business and requires significant management judgment about assumptions including mortality, morbidity, persistency, maintenance expenses, and investment returns, including net realized capital gains (losses). If actual experience or revised future expectations result in projected future losses, we may be required to amortize any remaining DAC and record additional liabilities through a charge to policyholder benefit expense, which could negatively affect our results of operations. 

For further discussion of DAC and future policy benefits, see Item 7. MD&A — Critical Accounting Estimates and Notes 9 and 13 to the Consolidated Financial Statements.

Losses due to nonperformance or defaults by counterparties can materially and adversely affect the value of our investments, our profitability and sources of liquidity.  We incur credit risk with regard to counterparties related to investments, derivatives, premiums receivable, certain General Insurance businesses and reinsurance recoverables. These counterparties include issuers of fixed maturity and equity securities we hold, borrowers of loans we hold, customers, trading counterparties, counterparties under swaps and other derivative contracts, reinsurers, corporate and governmental entities whose payments or performance we insure, clearing agents, exchanges, clearing houses and other financial intermediaries and guarantors. These counterparties may default on their obligations to us due to bankruptcy, insolvency, receivership, lack of liquidity, adverse economic conditions, operational failure, fraud, government intervention and other reasons. In addition, for exchange-traded derivatives, such as futures, options and "cleared" over-the-counter derivatives, we are generally exposed to the credit risk of the relevant central counterparty clearing house. Defaults by these counterparties on their obligations to us could have a material adverse effect on the value of our investments, business, financial condition, results of operations and liquidity. Additionally, if the underlying assets supporting the structured securities we invest in default on their payment obligations, our securities may incur losses.

Investment Portfolio AND Concentration of Investments

The performance and value of our investment portfolio are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, including changes in interest rates. Our investment securities are subject to market risks and uncertainties. In particular, interest rates are highly sensitive to many factors, including monetary and fiscal policy, domestic and international economic and political issues and other factors beyond our control. Changes in monetary policy or other factors may cause interest rate volatility, which could adversely affect the value of the fixed income securities that we hold and could adversely affect our ability to sell these securities. In addition, the evaluation of available-for-sale securities for other-than-temporary impairments, which may occur if interest rates rise, is a quantitative and qualitative process that is subject to significant management judgment.

For a sensitivity analysis of our exposure to certain market risk factors see Item 7. MD&A – Enterprise Risk Management – Market Risk Management.

For a discussion regarding changes to LIBOR rates, see “Changes in the method for determining LIBOR and the potential replacement of LIBOR may affect our cost of capital and net investment income” below.

Furthermore, our alternative investment portfolio includes investments for which changes in fair value are reported through operating income and are therefore subject to significant volatility. In an economic downturn or declining market, the reduction in our investment income due to decreases in the fair value of alternative investments could have a material adverse effect on operating income.

Our investment portfolio is concentrated in certain segments of the economy. Our results of operations and financial condition have in the past been, and may in the future be, adversely affected by the degree of concentration in our investment portfolio. We have significant exposure in real estate and real estate-related securities, including residential mortgage-backed, commercial mortgage-backed and other asset-backed securities and commercial mortgage loans. We also have significant exposures to financial institutions and, in particular, to money center and global banks; certain industries, such as energy and utilities; U.S. state and local government issuers and authorities; and Euro-Zone financial institutions, governments and corporations. Events or developments that have a negative effect on any particular industry, asset class, group of related industries or geographic region may adversely affect our investments to the extent they are concentrated in such segments. Our ability to sell assets concentrated in such segments may be limited.

Our valuation of investment securities may include methodologies, estimations and assumptions that are subject to differing interpretations and could result in changes to investment valuations that may materially adversely affect our results of operations, financial condition and liquidity.  During periods of market disruption, it may be difficult to value certain of our investment securities if trading becomes less frequent and/or market data becomes less observable. There may be cases where certain assets in normally active markets with significant observable data become inactive with insufficient observable data due to the financial environment or market conditions in effect at that time. As a result, valuations may include inputs and assumptions that are less observable or require greater estimation and judgment as well as valuation methods that are more complex. These values may not be realized in a market transaction, may not reflect the value of the asset and may change very rapidly as market conditions change and valuation assumptions are modified. Decreases in value and/or an inability to realize that value in a market transaction or secured lending transaction may have a material adverse effect on our results of operations, financial condition and liquidity.

LIQUIDITY, CAPITAL AND CREDIT

AIG Parent’s ability to access funds from our subsidiaries is limited. As a holding company, AIG Parent depends on dividends, distributions and other payments from its subsidiaries to fund dividends on AIG Common Stock, to fund repurchases of AIG Common Stock, warrants and debt obligations and to make payments due on its obligations, including its outstanding debt. The majority of our investments are held by our regulated subsidiaries. Our subsidiaries may be limited in their ability to make dividend payments or other distributions to AIG Parent in the future because of the need to support their own capital levels or because of regulatory limits or rating agency requirements. The inability of our subsidiaries to make payments, dividends or other distributions in an amount sufficient to enable AIG Parent to meet its cash requirements could have an adverse effect on our operations, and on our ability to pay dividends, repurchase AIG Common Stock, warrants and debt obligations or to meet our debt service obligations.

Our internal sources of liquidity may be insufficient to meet our needs, including providing capital that may be required by our subsidiaries. We need liquidity to pay our operating expenses, interest on our debt, maturing debt obligations and to meet capital needs of our subsidiaries. If our liquidity is insufficient to meet our needs, we may at the time need to have recourse to third-party financing, external capital markets or other sources of liquidity, which may not be available or could be prohibitively expensive. The availability and cost of any additional financing at any given time depends on a variety of factors, including general market conditions, the volume of trading activities, the overall availability of credit, regulatory actions and our credit ratings and credit capacity. It is also possible that, as a result of such recourse to external financing, customers, lenders or investors could develop a negative perception of our long- or short-term financial prospects. Disruptions, volatility and uncertainty in the financial markets, and downgrades in our credit ratings, may limit our ability to access external capital markets at times and on terms favorable to us to meet our capital and liquidity needs or prevent our accessing the external capital markets or other financing sources.

For a further discussion of our liquidity, see Item 7. MD&A — Liquidity and Capital Resources. 

AIG Parent’s ability to support our subsidiaries is limited.  AIG Parent has in the past and expects to continue to provide capital to our subsidiaries as necessary to maintain regulatory capital ratios, comply with rating agency requirements and meet unexpected cash flow obligations. If AIG Parent is unable to satisfy a capital need of a subsidiary, the credit rating agencies could downgrade the subsidiary’s financial strength ratings or the subsidiary could become insolvent or, in certain cases, could be seized by its regulator.

For further discussion of rating agency requirements, see “A downgrade in the Insurer Financial Strength ratings of our insurance or reinsurance companies could limit their ability to write or prevent them from writing new business and retaining customers and business” below.

Our subsidiaries may not be able to generate cash to meet their needs due to the illiquidity of some of their investments. Our subsidiaries have investments in certain securities that may be illiquid, including certain fixed income securities and certain structured securities, private company securities, investments in private equity funds and hedge funds, mortgage loans, finance receivables and real estate. Collectively, investments in these assets had a fair value of $62 billion at December 31, 2018. Adverse real estate and capital markets, and wider credit spreads, have in the past, and may in the future, materially adversely affect the liquidity of our other securities portfolios, including our residential and commercial mortgage‑related securities portfolios. In the event

additional liquidity is required by one or more of our subsidiaries and AIG Parent is unable to provide it, it may be difficult for these subsidiaries to generate additional liquidity by selling, pledging or otherwise monetizing these less liquid investments.

A downgrade in the Insurer Financial Strength ratings of our insurance or reinsurance companies could limit their ability to write or prevent them from writing new business and retaining customers and business. Insurer Financial Strength (IFS) ratings are an important factor in establishing the competitive position of insurance or reinsurance companies. IFS ratings measure an insurance or reinsurance company’s ability to meet its obligations to contract holders and policyholders. High ratings help maintain public confidence in a company’s products, facilitate marketing of products and enhance its competitive position. Downgrades of the IFS ratings of our insurance or reinsurance companies could prevent these companies from selling, or make it more difficult for them to succeed in selling, products and services, or result in increased policy cancellations, lapses and surrenders, termination of assumed reinsurance contracts, or return of premiums. Under credit rating agency policies concerning the relationship between parent and subsidiary ratings, a downgrade in AIG Parent’s credit ratings could result in a downgrade of the IFS ratings of our insurance or reinsurance subsidiaries. Certain rating agencies negatively revised the outlook for our IFS ratings in early 2017, primarily as a result of our reserve strengthening in the fourth quarter of 2016 and related concerns regarding our profitability outlook. These same rating agencies maintained negative outlooks on our ratings throughout 2018 and 2019 to date. We cannot predict what actions rating agencies may take, or what actions we may take in response to the actions of rating agencies, which could adversely affect our business.

A downgrade in our credit ratings could adversely affect our business, our results of operations or our liquidity. Credit ratings estimate a company’s ability to meet its obligations. A downgrade of our long-term debt ratings by the major rating agencies could potentially increase our financing costs and limit the availability of financing. A downgrade would also require us to post additional collateral payments related to derivative transactions to which we are a party, and could permit the termination of these derivative transactions. This could adversely affect our business, our consolidated results of operations in a reporting period and/or our liquidity. Certain rating agencies negatively revised our credit ratings and ratings outlooks in early 2017, primarily as a result of our reserve strengthening in the fourth quarter of 2016 and related concerns regarding our profitability outlook. These same rating agencies maintained negative outlooks on our ratings throughout 2018 and 2019 to date. We cannot predict what actions rating agencies may take, or what actions we may take in response to the actions of rating agencies, which could adversely affect our business.

We may be required to post additional collateral because of changes in our reinsurance liabilities to regulated insurance companies, or because of regulatory changes that affect our businesses. If our reinsurance liabilities increase, we may be required to post additional collateral for insurance company clients that we reinsure. In addition, regulatory changes could sometimes require us to post additional collateral. The need to post this additional collateral, if significant enough, may require us to sell investments at a loss in order to provide securities of suitable credit quality or otherwise secure adequate capital at an unattractive cost. This could adversely impact our consolidated results of operations, liquidity and financial condition.

Changes in the method for determining LIBOR and the potential replacement of LIBOR may affect our cost of capital and net investment income. As a result of concerns about the accuracy of the calculation of LIBOR, a number of British Bankers’ Association (BBA) member banks entered into settlements with certain regulators and law enforcement agencies with respect to the alleged manipulation of LIBOR. Actions by the BBA, regulators or law enforcement agencies as a result of these or future events may result in changes to the manner in which LIBOR is determined. 

For example, on July 27, 2017, the UK Financial Conduct Authority announced that it intends to stop persuading or compelling banks to submit LIBOR rates after 2021, which is expected to result in these widely used reference rates no longer being available. Potential changes to LIBOR, as well as uncertainty related to such potential changes and the establishment of any alternative reference rates, may adversely affect the market for LIBOR-based securities and could adversely impact the substantial amount of derivatives contracts used to hedge our insurance liabilities. In addition, the discontinuance of LIBOR or changes or reforms to the determination or supervision of LIBOR may result in a sudden or prolonged increase or decrease in reported LIBOR, which could have an adverse impact on the market for LIBOR-based securities or the value of our investment portfolio and the derivatives contracts used to hedge our insurance liabilities.

Business and operations

Our restructuring initiatives may not yield our expected reductions in expenses and improvements in operational and organizational efficiency. We may not be able to fully realize the anticipated expense reductions and operational and organizational efficiency improvements we expect to result from our restructuring initiatives, including the reorganization of AIG into General Insurance and Life and Retirement segments. Actual costs to implement these initiatives may exceed our estimates or we may be unable to fully implement and execute these initiatives as planned. The implementation of these initiatives may harm our relationships with customers or employees or our competitive position. Our businesses and results of operations may be negatively impacted if we are unable to realize these anticipated expense reductions and efficiency improvements or if implementing these initiatives harms our

relationships with customers or employees or our competitive position. The successful implementation of these initiatives may continue to require us to effect workforce reductions, business rationalizations, systems enhancements, business process outsourcing, business and asset dispositions and acquisitions and other actions, which depend on a number of factors, some of which are beyond our control.

Pricing for our products is subject to our ability to adequately assess risks and estimate losses.  We seek to price our insurance and reinsurance products such that premiums, policy fees and charges, and future net investment income earned on revenues received will result in an acceptable profit in excess of expenses and the cost of paying claims. Our business is dependent on our ability to price our products effectively and charge appropriate premiums. Pricing adequacy depends on a number of factors and assumptions, including proper evaluation of insurance risks, our expense levels, net investment income realized, our response to rate actions taken by competitors, legal and regulatory developments and the ability to obtain regulatory approval for rate changes. Some life insurance business has the ability to adjust certain nonguaranteed charges or benefits if necessary; however, this right is limited and may be subject to guaranteed minimums and/or maximums  and may result in reputational and/or litigation risk. Inadequate pricing could have a material adverse effect on our results of operations and financial condition.

Guarantees within certain of our products may increase the volatility of our results.  Certain of our annuity and life insurance products include features that guarantee a certain level of benefits, including guaranteed minimum death benefits (GMDB), guaranteed living benefits (GLB), and products with guaranteed interest crediting rates tied to an index.  

For a discussion of market risk management related to these product features see Item 7. MD&A – Enterprise Risk Management – Insurance Risks – Life and Retirement Companies Key Risks – Variable Annuity Risk Management and Hedging Programs.

Differences between the change in fair value of the embedded derivatives associated with some of these guarantees and the related hedging portfolio can be caused by extreme and unanticipated movements in the equity markets, interest rates and market volatility, policyholder behavior that differs from our assumptions and our inability to purchase hedging instruments at prices consistent with the desired risk and return trade-off.  The occurrence of one or more of these events could result in an increase in the liabilities associated with the guaranteed benefits, reducing our net income and shareholders’ equity. While we believe that our actions have reduced the risks related to guaranteed benefits and guaranteed interest crediting, our exposure may not be fully or correctly hedged.

For more information regarding these products see Notes 5 and 14 to the Consolidated Financial Statements, Item 1. Business – Regulation, and Item 7. MD&A – Critical Accounting Estimates – Insurance Liabilities – Guaranteed Benefit Features of Variable Annuity Products. 

Our foreign operations expose us to risks that may affect our operations. We provide insurance, reinsurance, investment and other financial products and services to both businesses and individuals in more than 80 countries and jurisdictions. A substantial portion of our business is conducted outside the U.S., and we intend to continue to grow business in strategic markets. Operations outside the U.S. may be affected by regional economic downturns, changes in foreign currency exchange rates, political events or upheaval, nationalization and other restrictive government actions, which could also affect our other operations.

The degree of regulation and supervision in foreign jurisdictions varies. AIG subsidiaries operating in foreign jurisdictions must satisfy local regulatory requirements and it is possible that local licenses may require AIG Parent to meet certain conditions. Licenses issued by foreign authorities to our subsidiaries are subject to modification and revocation. Consequently, our insurance subsidiaries could be prevented from conducting future business in some of the jurisdictions where they currently operate. Adverse actions from any single country could adversely affect our results of operations, depending on the magnitude of the event and our financial exposure at that time in that country.

On June 23, 2016, the United Kingdom (UK) held a referendum in which a majority voted for the UK to withdraw its membership in the European Union (EU), commonly referred to as Brexit. The terms of withdrawal remain uncertain, with the draft withdrawal agreement having to date been rejected by the UK Parliament. There can be no assurance that a withdrawal agreement will be reached prior to Brexit. We have significant operations and employees in the UK and other EU member states, and, as a result of Brexit, we have completed a reorganization of our operations and legal entity structure in the UK and the EU through the establishment of a new European subsidiary in Luxembourg with branches across the EEA and Switzerland, and a new UK subsidiary. For additional information regarding the reorganization of our European operations in light of Brexit, see Item 1. Business – Regulation – International Regulation – Brexit. However, there remains uncertainty around the post-Brexit regulatory environment. Brexit has also affected the U.S. dollar/British pound exchange rate, increased the volatility of exchange rates among the euro, British pound and the Japanese yen, and created volatility in the financial markets. It is possible that the uncertainty around the outcome of the negotiations between the UK and the EU will lead to further turbulence in the financial markets, which may affect the value of our investments.

We may experience difficulty in marketing and distributing products through our current and future distribution channels. Although we distribute our products through a wide variety of distribution channels, we maintain relationships with certain key distributors. Distributors have in the past, and may in the future, elect to renegotiate the terms of existing relationships, or reduce or

terminate their distribution relationships with us, including for such reasons as industry consolidation of distributors or other industry changes that increase the competition for access to distributors, developments in legislation or regulation that affect our business, adverse developments in our business, adverse rating agency actions or concerns about market-related risks. An interruption in certain key relationships could materially affect our ability to market our products and could have a material adverse effect on our businesses, operating results and financial condition.

In addition, when our products are distributed through unaffiliated firms, we may not be able to monitor or control the manner of their distribution, despite our training and compliance programs. If our products are distributed to customers for whom they are unsuitable or distributed in any other inappropriate manner, we may suffer reputational and other harm to our business.

We are exposed to certain risks if we are unable to maintain the availability of our electronic data systems and safeguard the security of our data, which could compromise our ability to conduct business and adversely affect our consolidated financial condition or results of operations. We use computer systems to store, retrieve, evaluate and use customer, employee, and company data and information. Some of these systems, in turn, rely upon third-party systems. Additionally, some of our systems are older, legacy-type systems that are less efficient and require an ongoing commitment of significant resources to maintain or upgrade. Our business is highly dependent on our ability to access these systems to perform necessary business functions. These functions include providing insurance or reinsurance quotes, processing premium payments, making changes to existing policies, filing and paying claims, administering life and annuity products and mutual funds, providing customer support, executing transactions and managing our investment portfolios. Systems failures or outages could compromise our ability to perform these functions in a timely manner, which could harm our ability to conduct business, hurt our relationships with our business partners and customers and expose us to legal claims as well as regulatory investigations and sanctions. In the event of a natural disaster, a computer virus, unauthorized access, a terrorist attack, cyberattack or other disruption inside or outside the U.S., our systems may be inaccessible to our employees, customers or business partners for an extended period of time, and our employees may be unable to perform their duties for an extended period of time if our data or systems are disabled, manipulated, destroyed or otherwise compromised.

Like other global companies, our systems have in the past been, and will likely in the future be, subject to or targets of unauthorized or fraudulent access, including physical or electronic break-ins or unauthorized tampering, as well as attempted cyber and other security threats and other computer-related penetrations. The frequency and sophistication of such threats continue to increase. We must continuously monitor and develop our information technology networks and infrastructure to prevent, detect, address and mitigate the risk of threats to our data and systems, including malware and computer virus attacks, ransomware, unauthorized access, misuse, denial-of-service attacks, system failures and disruptions. There is no assurance that our security measures, including information security policies, administrative, technical and physical controls and other preventative actions, will provide fully effective protection from such events. AIG maintains cyber risk insurance, but this insurance may not cover all costs associated with the consequences of personal, confidential or proprietary information being compromised. In some cases, such unauthorized access may not be immediately detected. This may impede or interrupt our business operations and could adversely affect our consolidated financial condition or results of operations.

In addition, we routinely transmit, receive and store personal, confidential and proprietary information by email and other electronic means. Although we attempt to keep such information confidential, we may be unable to do so in all events, especially with clients, vendors, service providers, counterparties and other third parties who may not have or use appropriate controls to protect personal, confidential or proprietary information. Any problems caused by these third parties, including those resulting from breakdowns or other disruptions in communication services provided by a vendor, failure of a vendor to handle current or higher volumes, cyber-attacks and security breaches at a vendor could adversely affect our ability to deliver products and services to our customers and otherwise conduct our business.

Furthermore, certain of our businesses are subject to compliance with laws and regulations enacted by U.S. federal and state governments, the European Union or other jurisdictions or enacted by various regulatory organizations or exchanges relating to the privacy and security of the information of clients, employees or others. The variety of applicable privacy and information security laws and regulations could expose us to heightened regulatory scrutiny and may require us to incur significant technical, legal and other expenses to ensure and maintain compliance. If we are found not to be in compliance with these laws and regulations, we could be subjected to significant civil and criminal liability and exposed to reputational harm. For additional information on data protection and cybersecurity regulations, see Item 1. Business – Regulation – U.S. Regulation – Privacy, Data Protection and Cybersecurity and – International Regulation – Privacy, Data Protection and Cybersecurity. Additionally, the compromise of personal, confidential or proprietary information could cause a loss of data, give rise to remediation or other expenses, expose us to liability under U.S. and international laws and regulations, and subject us to litigation, investigations, sanctions and regulatory and law enforcement action, and result in reputational harm and loss of business, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, cash flows, financial condition and results of operations.

We are continuously evaluating and enhancing systems and creating new systems and processes as our business depends on our ability to maintain and improve our technology systems for interacting with customers, brokers and employees. Due to the complexity

and interconnectedness of our systems and processes, these changes, as well as changes designed to update and enhance our protective measures to address new threats, may increase the risk of a system or process failure or the creation of a gap in our security measures. Any such failure or gap could adversely affect our business operations and the advancement of our business or strategic initiatives.

Business or asset acquisitions and dispositions may expose us to certain risks. The completion of any business or asset acquisition or disposition is subject to certain risks, including those relating to the receipt of required regulatory approvals, the terms and conditions of regulatory approvals, the occurrence of any event, change or other circumstances that could give rise to the termination of a transaction and the risk that parties may not be willing or able to satisfy the conditions to a transaction. As a result, there can be no assurance that any business or asset acquisition or disposition will be completed as contemplated, or at all, or regarding the expected timing of the completion of the acquisition or disposition. Once we complete acquisitions or dispositions, there can be no assurance that we will realize the anticipated economic, strategic or other benefits of any transaction. For example, the integration of businesses we acquire may not be as successful as we anticipate or there may be undisclosed risks present in such businesses. Acquisitions involve a number of risks, including operational, strategic, financial, accounting, legal, compliance and tax risks. Difficulties integrating an acquired business may result in the acquired business performing differently than we expected (including through the loss of customers) or in our failure to realize anticipated expense-related efficiencies. Our existing businesses could also be negatively impacted by acquisitions. Risks resulting from future acquisitions may have a material adverse effect on our results of operations and financial condition. In connection with a business or asset disposition, we may also hold a concentrated position in securities of the acquirer as part of the consideration, which subjects us to risks related to the price of equity securities and our ability to monetize such securities.

Indemnity claims could be made against us in connection with divested businesses.  We have provided financial guarantees and indemnities in connection with the businesses we have sold, as described in greater detail in Note 16 to the Consolidated Financial Statements. While we do not currently believe that claims under these indemnities will be material, it is possible that significant indemnity claims could be made against us. If such a claim or claims were successful, it could have a material adverse effect on our results of operations, cash flows and liquidity.

For additional information on these financial guarantees and indemnities see Note 16 to the Consolidated Financial Statements.

Significant legal proceedings may adversely affect our results of operations or financial condition. Like others in the insurance and financial services industries in general, in the ordinary course of operating our businesses we face significant risk from regulatory and governmental investigations and civil actions, litigation and other forms of dispute resolution in various domestic and foreign jurisdictions. In our insurance and reinsurance operations, we frequently engage in litigation and arbitration concerning the scope of coverage under insurance and reinsurance contracts, and face litigation and arbitration in which our subsidiaries defend or indemnify their insureds under insurance contracts. AIG, our subsidiaries and their respective officers and directors are also subject to a variety of additional types of legal disputes brought by holders of AIG securities, customers, employees and others, alleging, among other things, breach of contractual or fiduciary duties, bad faith and violations of federal and state statutes and regulations. Certain of these matters involve potentially significant risk of loss due to the possibility of significant jury awards and settlements, punitive damages or other penalties. Many of these matters are also highly complex and seek recovery on behalf of a class or similarly large number of plaintiffs. It is therefore inherently difficult to predict the size or scope of potential future losses arising from them, and developments in these matters could have a material adverse effect on our consolidated financial condition or consolidated results of operations for an individual reporting period.

For a discussion of certain legal proceedings, including certain tax controversies, see Notes 16 and 23 to the Consolidated Financial Statements.

Our risk management policies and procedures may prove to be ineffective and leave us exposed to unidentified or unanticipated risk, which could adversely affect our businesses or result in losses. We have developed and continue to develop enterprise-wide risk management policies and procedures to mitigate risk and loss to which we are exposed.

There are, however, inherent limitations to risk management strategies because there may exist, or develop in the future, risks that we have not appropriately anticipated or identified. If our risk management policies and procedures are ineffective, we may suffer unexpected losses and could be materially adversely affected. As our businesses change and the markets in which we operate evolve, our risk management framework may not evolve at the same pace as those changes. As a result, there is a risk that new products or new business strategies may present risks that are not appropriately identified, monitored or managed. In times of market stress, unanticipated market movements or unanticipated claims experience resulting from adverse mortality, morbidity or policyholder behavior, the effectiveness of our risk management strategies may be limited, resulting in losses to us. In addition, there can be no assurance that we can effectively review and monitor all risks or that all of our employees will follow our risk management policies and procedures.

REGULATION

Our businesses are heavily regulated and changes in regulation may affect our operations, increase our insurance subsidiary capital requirements or reduce our profitability. Our operations generally, and our insurance and reinsurance subsidiaries, in particular, are subject to extensive and potentially conflicting supervision and regulation by national authorities and by the various jurisdictions in which we do business. Supervision and regulation relate to numerous aspects of our business and financial condition. Federal, state and foreign regulators also periodically review and investigate our insurance and reinsurance businesses, including AIG-specific and industry-wide practices. The primary purpose of insurance regulation is the protection of our insurance and reinsurance contract holders, and not our investors. The extent of domestic regulation varies, but generally is governed by state statutes which delegate regulatory, supervisory and administrative authority to state insurance departments. In addition, federal and state securities laws and regulations apply to certain of our insurance products that are considered ‘securities’ under such laws, including our variable annuity contracts, variable life insurance policies and the separate accounts that issue them, as well as our broker-dealer, investment advisor and mutual funds operations. These laws and regulations generally grant regulatory agencies and self-regulatory organizations broad rulemaking and enforcement powers, including the power to regulate the issuance, sale and distribution of our products and limit or restrict the conduct of business for failure to comply with applicable securities laws and regulations.

We strive to maintain all required licenses and approvals and to comply with applicable laws and regulations. The application of and compliance with laws and regulations applicable to our businesses, operations and legal entities are subject to interpretation. The relevant authority may not agree with our interpretation of these laws and regulations, capital and reserving requirements, and such authority’s interpretation may also change from time to time. Regulatory authorities also have relatively broad discretion to grant, renew or revoke licenses and approvals. If we do not have the required licenses and approvals or do not comply with applicable regulatory requirements, these authorities could preclude or temporarily suspend us from carrying on some or all of our activities or impose substantial fines. Further, insurance regulatory authorities have relatively broad discretion to issue orders of supervision, which permit them to supervise the business and operations of an insurance or reinsurance company.

In the U.S., the RBC formula is designed to measure the adequacy of an insurer’s statutory surplus in relation to the risks inherent in its business. Every state has adopted, in substantial part, the RBC Model Law promulgated by the NAIC or a substantially similar law, which specifies the regulatory actions the insurance regulator may take if an insurer’s RBC calculations fall below specific thresholds. Those actions range from requiring an insurer to submit a plan describing how it would regain a specified RBC ratio to a mandatory regulatory takeover of the company. The NAIC and certain international standard-setting bodies are also considering methodologies for assessing group-wide regulatory capital, which might evolve into more formal group-wide capital requirements on certain insurance companies that may augment state-law RBC standards that apply at the legal entity level, and such capital calculations may be made, in whole or in part, on bases other than the statutory statements of our U.S. insurance subsidiaries. We cannot predict the effect these initiatives may have on our business, consolidated results of operations, liquidity and financial condition.

See “Actions by foreign governments, regulators and international standard setters could result in substantial additional regulation to which we may be subject” below for additional information on increased capital and other requirements that may be imposed on us.

The degree of regulation and supervision in foreign jurisdictions varies. AIG subsidiaries operating in foreign jurisdictions must satisfy local regulatory requirements and it is possible that local licenses may require AIG Parent to meet certain conditions. Licenses issued by foreign authorities to our subsidiaries are subject to modification and revocation. Accordingly, our insurance subsidiaries could be prevented from conducting future business in certain of the jurisdictions where they currently operate. Adverse actions from any single country could adversely affect our business, consolidated results of operations, liquidity and financial condition, depending on the magnitude of the event and our financial exposure at that time in that country.

For further discussion of our regulatory environment see Item 1. Business – Regulation.

Certain provisions of Dodd-Frank remain relevant to insurance groups generally, including AIG. The Financial Stability Oversight Council (Council) rescinded our designation as a nonbank systemically important financial institution (nonbank SIFI) on September 29, 2017, but the Council remains authorized under Dodd-Frank to determine, subject to certain statutory and regulatory standards, that certain nonbank financial companies be designated as nonbank SIFIs subject to supervision by the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System and enhanced prudential standards. The Council may also recommend that state insurance regulators or other regulators apply new or heightened standards and safeguards for activities or practices that we and other insurers or other nonbank financial services companies, including insurers, engage in. Additionally, Dodd-Frank directs existing and newly created government agencies and bodies to promulgate regulations implementing the law, which is an ongoing process. There remains considerable uncertainty as to the potential adoption and timing of regulatory changes related to Dodd-Frank. We cannot predict the requirements of the regulations that may be ultimately adopted or the impact they may have on our businesses, consolidated results of operations, liquidity and financial condition.

See Item 1. Business – Regulation – U.S. Regulation – Dodd-Frank for further discussion of provisions of Dodd-Frank that remain relevant to insurance groups generally.

Actions by foreign governments, regulators and international standard setters could result in substantial additional regulation to which we may be subject.  We cannot predict the impact laws and regulations adopted in foreign jurisdictions may have on the financial markets generally or our businesses, results of operations or cash flows. It is possible such laws and regulations, our status as an Internationally Active Insurance Group (IAIG) and certain standard-setting initiatives by the FSB and the IAIS, including, but not limited to, the ongoing development of a holistic framework for the assessment and mitigation of systemic risk and a risk-based global insurance capital standard (ICS), and implementation of Solvency II in the European Union, may significantly alter our business practices. They may also limit our ability to engage in capital or liability management, require us to raise additional capital, and impose burdensome requirements and additional costs. It is possible that the laws and regulations adopted in foreign jurisdictions will differ from one another, and that they could be inconsistent with the laws and regulations of other jurisdictions including the U.S.

For further details on these international regulations and their potential impact on AIG and its businesses, see Item 1. Business – Regulation – International Regulation.

The USA PATRIOT Act, the Office of Foreign Assets Control regulations and similar laws and regulations that apply to us may expose us to significant penalties. The operations of our subsidiaries are subject to laws and regulations, including, in some cases, the USA PATRIOT Act of 2001, which require companies to know certain information about their clients and to monitor their transactions for suspicious activities. Also, the Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control administers regulations requiring U.S. persons to refrain from doing business, or allowing their clients to do business through them, with certain organizations or individuals on a prohibited list maintained by the U.S. government or with certain countries. The UK, the EU and other jurisdictions maintain similar laws and regulations. The laws and regulations of other jurisdictions may sometimes conflict with those of the U.S. Although we have instituted compliance programs to address these requirements as well as potential conflicts of law, there are inherent risks in global transactions.

Attempts to efficiently manage the impact of Regulation XXX and Actuarial Guideline AXXX may fail in whole or in part resulting in an adverse effect on our financial condition and results of operations. The NAIC Model Regulation “Valuation of Life Insurance Policies” (Regulation XXX) requires insurers to establish additional statutory reserves for term life insurance policies with long-term premium guarantees and universal life policies with secondary guarantees. In addition, NAIC Actuarial Guideline 38 (AG 38, also referred to as Guideline AXXX) clarifies the application of Regulation XXX as to certain universal life insurance policies with secondary guarantees.

Our domestic Life and Retirement companies manage the capital impact of statutory reserve requirements under Regulation XXX and Guideline AXXX through reinsurance transactions, to maintain their ability to offer competitive pricing and successfully market such products. The application of Regulation XXX and Guideline AXXX involve numerous interpretations. If state insurance departments do not agree with our interpretations or if regulations change with respect to our ability to manage the capital impact of certain statutory reserve requirements, our statutory reserve requirements could increase, or our ability to take reserve credit for reinsurance transactions could be reduced or eliminated. As a result, we could be required to increase prices on our products, raise capital to replace the reserve credit provided by the reinsurance transactions or incur higher costs to obtain reinsurance, each of which could adversely affect our competitive position, financial condition or results of operations. If our actions to efficiently manage the impact of Regulation XXX or Guideline AXXX on future sales of term and universal life insurance products are not successful, we may incur higher operating costs or our sales of these products may be affected.

For additional information on statutory reserving requirements under Regulation XXX and Guideline AXXX and our use of reinsurance see Note 19 to the Consolidated Financial Statements.

Third parties we rely upon to provide certain business and administrative services on our behalf may not perform as anticipated, which could have an adverse effect on our business and results of operations. We rely on the use of third-party providers to deliver contracted services in a broad range of areas, including the administration or servicing of certain policies and contracts and investment accounting and operation functions. Some of these providers are located outside the U.S., which exposes us to business disruptions and political risks inherent when conducting business outside of the U.S. We periodically negotiate provisions and renewals of these relationships, and there can be no assurance that such terms will remain acceptable to us or such third parties. If such third-party providers experience disruptions or do not perform as anticipated or in compliance with applicable laws and regulations, or we experience problems with a transition to a third-party provider, we may experience operational difficulties, an inability to meet obligations (including, but not limited to, legal, regulatory or policyholder obligations), a loss of business and increased costs, reputational harm, or suffer other negative consequences, all of which may have a material adverse effect on our business, consolidated results of operations, liquidity and financial condition.  

For a discussion regarding cyber risk arising from third-party providers, see “We are exposed to certain risks if we are unable to maintain the availability of our electronic data systems and safeguard the security of our data, which could compromise our ability to conduct business and adversely affect our consolidated financial condition or results of operations” above.

New laws and regulations may affect our businesses, results of operations, financial condition and ability to compete effectively. Legislators, regulators and self-regulatory organizations may periodically consider various proposals that may affect our business practices and product designs, how we sell or service certain products we offer, or the profitability of certain of our businesses. New laws and regulations may even affect our ability to conduct certain businesses at all, including proposals relating to restrictions on the type of activities in which financial institutions are permitted to engage. These proposals could also impose additional taxes on a limited subset of financial institutions and insurance companies (either based on size, activities, geography or other criteria). It is uncertain whether and how these and other such proposals would apply to us, those who sell or service our products, or our competitors or how they could impact our ability to compete effectively, as well as our business, consolidated results of operations, liquidity and financial condition.

An “ownership change” could limit our ability to utilize tax loss and credit carryforwards to offset future taxable income. As of December 31, 2018, on a tax basis, we had U.S. federal net operating loss carryforwards of approximately $36.3 billion, $82 million in capital loss carryforwards, $3.5 billion in foreign tax credits and $814 million in other tax credits (tax loss and credit carryforwards). Our ability to use these tax attributes to offset future taxable income may be significantly limited if we experience an “ownership change” as defined in Section 382 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended (the Code). In general, an ownership change will occur when the percentage of AIG Parent's ownership (by value) of one or more “5-percent shareholders” (as defined in the Code) has increased by more than 50 percent over the lowest percentage owned by such shareholders at any time during the prior three years (calculated on a rolling basis). An entity that experiences an ownership change generally will be subject to an annual limitation on its pre-ownership change tax loss and credit carryforwards equal to the equity value of the corporation immediately before the ownership change, multiplied by the long-term, tax-exempt rate posted monthly by the IRS (subject to certain adjustments). The annual limitation would be increased each year to the extent that there is an unused limitation in a prior year. The limitation on our ability to utilize tax loss and credit carryforwards arising from an ownership change under Section 382 would depend on the value of our equity at the time of any ownership change. If we were to experience an “ownership change”, it is possible that a significant portion of our tax loss and credit carryforwards could expire before we would be able to use them to offset future taxable income.

On March 9, 2011, our Board adopted our Tax Asset Protection Plan (the Plan) to help protect these tax loss and credit carryforwards, and on December 14, 2016, the Board adopted an amendment to the Plan, extending its expiration date to December 14, 2019. Our shareholders ratified the amendment of the Plan at our 2017 Annual Meeting of Shareholders. At our 2011 Annual Meeting of Shareholders, shareholders adopted a protective amendment to our Restated Certificate of Incorporation (Protective Amendment), which is designed to prevent certain transfers of AIG Common Stock that could result in an “ownership change”. At our 2017 Annual Meeting of Shareholders, our shareholders approved the amendment to our Amended and Restated Certificate of Incorporation to adopt a successor to the Protective Amendment that contains substantially the same terms as the Protective Amendment but would expire on June 28, 2020.

The Plan is designed to reduce the likelihood of an “ownership change” by (i) discouraging any person or group from becoming a 4.99 percent shareholder and (ii) discouraging any existing 4.99 percent shareholder from acquiring additional shares of AIG Common Stock. The Protective Amendment generally restricts any transfer of AIG Common Stock that would (i) increase the ownership by any person to 4.99 percent or more of AIG stock then outstanding or (ii) increase the percentage of AIG stock owned by a Five Percent Stockholder (as defined in the Plan). Despite the intentions of the Plan and the Protective Amendment to deter and prevent an “ownership change”, such an event may still occur. In addition, the Plan and the Protective Amendment may make it more difficult and more expensive to acquire us, and may discourage open market purchases of AIG Common Stock or a non-negotiated tender or exchange offer for AIG Common Stock. Accordingly, the Plan and the Protective Amendment may limit a shareholder’s ability to realize a premium over the market price of AIG Common Stock in connection with any stock transaction.

Changes to tax laws, including U.S. legislation enacted in late 2017, could increase our corporate taxes or make some of our products less attractive to consumers.

On December 22, 2017 President Trump signed major tax legislation into law (Public Law 115-97) (the Tax Act). The Tax Act, known informally as the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, reduced the statutory rate of U.S. federal corporate income tax to 21 percent and enacted numerous other changes impacting AIG and the insurance industry.

The reduction in the statutory U.S. federal corporate income tax rate is expected to positively impact AIG’s future U.S. after-tax earnings. Other changes in the Tax Act that broaden the tax base by reducing or eliminating deductions for certain items (e.g., reductions to separate account dividends received deductions, disallowance of entertainment expenses, and limitations on the deduction of certain executive compensation costs) will offset a portion of the benefits from the lower statutory rate. Other specific

changes, including the calculation of insurance tax reserves and the amortization of deferred acquisition costs, will impact the timing of our tax expense items and could impact the pricing of certain insurance products.

In addition to changing the taxation of corporations in general and insurance companies in particular, the Tax Act temporarily reduced certain tax rates for individuals and increased the exemption for the federal estate tax. These changes could reduce demand in the U.S. for life insurance and annuity contracts, which would reduce our income due to lower sales of these products or potential increased surrenders of in-force business.

Furthermore, the overall impact of the Tax Act is subject to the effect of other complex provisions in the Tax Act (including the base erosion and anti-abuse tax (BEAT) and global intangible low-taxed income (GILTI)), which reduce a portion of the benefit from the lower statutory U.S. federal rate. While the U.S. tax authorities issued formal guidance and proposed regulations for BEAT and other provisions of the Tax Act, there are still certain aspects of the Tax Act that remain unclear. AIG will continue to review the impact of both BEAT and GILTI as further guidance is issued. Any further guidance may result in changes to the interpretations and assumptions we made and actions we may take, which as a result may impact the amounts recorded with respect to international provisions of the Tax Act, possibly materially. In addition, if BEAT induces other countries to enact similar legislation that could impact cross-border reinsurance transactions, AIG could be negatively impacted by increased tax costs in those countries.

Finally, it is possible that tax laws will be further changed either in a technical corrections bill or entirely new legislation. It remains difficult to predict whether or when there will be any tax law changes or further guidance by the authorities in the U.S. or elsewhere in the world having a material adverse effect on our business, consolidated results of operations, liquidity and financial condition, as the impact of broad proposals on our business can vary substantially depending upon the specific changes or further guidance made and how the changes or guidance are implemented by the authorities.

For additional information see Item 7. MD&A – Consolidated Results of Operations – U.S. Tax Reform Overview.

COMPETITION and employees

We face intense competition in each of our businesses. Our businesses operate in highly competitive environments, both domestically and overseas. Our principal competitors are other large multinational insurance organizations, as well as banks, investment banks and other nonbank financial institutions. The insurance industry in particular is highly competitive. Within the U.S., our General Insurance companies compete with other stock companies, specialty insurance organizations, mutual insurance companies and other underwriting organizations. Our Life and Retirement companies compete in the U.S. with life insurance companies and other participants in related financial services fields. Overseas, our subsidiaries compete for business with the foreign insurance operations of large U.S. insurers and with global insurance groups and local companies. Technological advancements and innovation in the insurance industry may present competitive risks; technological advancements and innovation are occurring in distribution, underwriting, claims and operations and at a pace that may increase, particularly as companies increasingly use data analytics and technology as part of their business strategy. Our business and results of operations could be materially and adversely affected if technological advancements or innovation limit our ability to retain existing business, write new business at adequate rates or on appropriate terms, render our insurance products less suitable or impact our ability to adapt or deploy current products as quickly and effectively as our competitors.

Reductions of our credit ratings or negative publicity may make it more difficult to compete to retain existing customers and to maintain our historical levels of business with existing customers and counterparties. General Insurance companies and Life and Retirement companies compete through a combination of risk acceptance criteria, product pricing, and terms and conditions. Retirement services companies compete through crediting rates and the issuance of guaranteed benefits. A decline in our position as to any one or more of these factors could adversely affect our profitability.

Competition for employees in our industry is intense, and we may not be able to attract and retain the highly skilled people we need to support our business. Our success depends, in large part, on our ability to attract and retain key people. Due to the intense competition in our industry for key employees with demonstrated ability, we may be unable to hire or retain such employees. In addition, we may experience higher than expected employee turnover and difficulty attracting new employees as a result of uncertainty from strategic actions and organizational and operational changes. Losing any of our key people also could have a material adverse effect on our operations given their skills, knowledge of our business, years of industry experience and the potential difficulty of promptly finding qualified replacement employees. Our business and consolidated results of operations could be materially adversely affected if we are unsuccessful in attracting and retaining key employees.

Managing key employee succession and retention is critical to our success. We would be adversely affected if we fail to adequately plan for the succession of our senior management and other key employees. While we have succession plans and long-term compensation plans designed to retain our employees, our succession plans may not operate effectively and our compensation plans cannot guarantee that the services of these employees will continue to be available to us.

Employee error and misconduct may be difficult to detect and prevent and may result in significant losses. There have been a number of cases involving fraud or other misconduct by employees in the financial services industry in recent years and we run the risk that employee misconduct could occur. Instances of fraud, illegal acts, errors, failure to document transactions properly or to obtain proper internal authorization, misuse of customer or proprietary information, or failure to comply with regulatory requirements or our internal policies may result in losses and/or reputational damage. It is not always possible to deter or prevent employee misconduct, and the controls that we have in place to prevent and detect this activity may not be effective in all cases.

We may not be able to protect our intellectual property and may be subject to infringement claims. We rely on a combination of contractual rights and copyright, trademark, patent and trade secret laws to establish and protect our intellectual property. Although we use a broad range of measures to protect our intellectual property rights, third parties may infringe or misappropriate our intellectual property. We may have to litigate to enforce and protect our intellectual property and to determine its scope, validity or enforceability, which could divert significant resources and may not prove successful. Litigation to enforce our intellectual property rights may not be successful and cost a significant amount of money. The inability to secure or enforce the protection of our intellectual property assets could harm our reputation and have a material adverse effect on our business and our ability to compete. We also may be subject to costly litigation in the event that another party alleges our operations or activities infringe upon their intellectual property rights, including patent rights, or violate license usage rights. Any such intellectual property claims and any resulting litigation could result in significant expense and liability for damages, and in some circumstances we could be enjoined from providing certain products or services to our customers, or utilizing and benefiting from certain patent, copyrights, trademarks, trade secrets or licenses, or alternatively could be required to enter into costly licensing arrangements with third parties, all of which could have a material adverse effect on our business, consolidated results of operations and financial condition.

ESTIMATES AND ASSUMPTIONS

Estimates used in the preparation of financial statements and modeled results used in various areas of our business may differ materially from actual experience.  Our financial statements are prepared in conformity with U.S. Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (U.S. GAAP), which requires the application of accounting policies that often involve a significant degree of judgment. The accounting policies that we consider most dependent on the application of estimates and assumptions, and therefore may be viewed as critical accounting estimates, are described in Item 7. MD&A — Critical Accounting Estimates. These accounting estimates require the use of assumptions, some of which are highly uncertain at the time of estimation. These estimates are based on judgment, current facts and circumstances, and, when applicable, internally developed models. Therefore, actual results could differ from these estimates, possibly in the near term, and could have a material effect on our consolidated financial statements.

In addition, we employ models to price products, calculate reserves and value assets, as well as evaluate risk and determine capital requirements, among other uses. These models rely on estimates and projections that are inherently uncertain, may use incomplete, outdated or incorrect data or assumptions and may not operate properly. As our businesses continue to expand and evolve, the number and complexity of models we employ has grown, increasing our exposure to error in the design, implementation or use of models, including the associated input data, controls and assumptions and the controls we have in place to mitigate their risk may not be effective in all cases.

Changes in accounting principles and financial reporting requirements could impact our consolidated results of operations and financial condition. Our financial statements are subject to the application of U.S. GAAP, which is periodically revised. Accordingly, from time to time, we are required to adopt new or revised accounting standards issued by recognized authoritative bodies, including the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB).

The International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) has issued International Financial Reporting Standard (IFRS) 17, Insurance Contracts, with an effective date of January 1, 2021. This new standard will require significant changes to accounting measurements for long-duration insurance contracts for many of our international operations.

The FASB has revised the accounting standards for insurance contracts. The FASB adopted standards as of December 31, 2017 focused on disclosures for short-duration insurance contracts, which primarily relate to our property casualty products. In addition, the FASB issued Accounting Standards Update (ASU) No. 2018-12 – Targeted Improvements to the Accounting for Long-Duration Contracts, which has an effective date of January 1, 2021 and is intended to improve, simplify and enhance the accounting measurements and disclosures for long-duration insurance contracts, which primarily relates to our life and annuity products. Changes to the manner in which we account for long-duration products could impact our consolidated results of operations, liquidity and financial condition.

The FASB issued ASU No. 2016-13 – Measurement of Credit Losses on Financial Instruments, which has an effective date of January 1, 2020. This standard will change how we account for credit losses for most financial assets, trade receivables and reinsurance receivables. The standard will replace the existing incurred loss impairment model with a new “current expected credit loss model” that generally will result in earlier recognition of credit losses. The standard will apply to financial assets subject to credit

losses, including loans measured at amortized cost, reinsurance receivables and certain off-balance sheet credit exposures. Additionally, the impairment of available-for-sale debt securities, including purchased credit deteriorated securities, are subject to the new guidance and will be measured in a similar manner, except that losses will be recognized as allowances rather than reductions in the amortized cost of the securities. The standard will impact our consolidated results of operations, liquidity and financial condition and will require additional information to be disclosed in the Notes to the Consolidated Financial Statements.    

The adoption of the newly issued standards as well as other future accounting standards could impact our reported consolidated results of operations, liquidity and reported financial condition.

For a discussion of the impact of accounting pronouncements that have been issued but are not yet required to be implemented see Note 2 to the Consolidated Financial Statements.

Changes in our assumptions regarding the discount rate and expected rate of return for our pension and other postretirement benefit plans may result in increased expenses and reduce our profitability.  We determine our pension and other postretirement benefit plan costs based on assumed discount rates, expected rates of return on plan assets and trends in health care costs. Changes in these assumptions, including from the impact of a sustained low interest rate environment or rapidly rising interest rates, may result in increased expenses which could impact our consolidated results of operations, liquidity and financial condition.

For further details on our pension and postretirement benefit plans see Note 21 to the Consolidated Financial Statements.

If our businesses do not perform well and/or their estimated fair values decline or the price of our common stock does not increase, we may be required to recognize an impairment of our goodwill or to establish a valuation allowance against the deferred income tax assets, which could have a material adverse effect on our results of operations and financial condition.  Goodwill represents the excess of the amounts we paid to acquire subsidiaries and other businesses over the fair value of their net assets at the date of acquisition. We test goodwill at least annually for impairment. Impairment testing is performed based upon estimates of the fair value of the “reporting unit” to which the goodwill relates. The fair value of the reporting unit is impacted by the performance of the business and could be adversely impacted if new business, customer retention, profitability or other drivers of performance differ from expectations, or upon the occurrence of certain events, including a significant and adverse change in regulations, legal factors, accounting standards or business climate, or an adverse action or assessment by a regulator. If it is determined that goodwill has been impaired, we must write down goodwill by the amount of the impairment, with a corresponding charge to net income (loss). These write downs could have a material adverse effect on our consolidated results of operations, liquidity and financial condition.  For further discussion regarding goodwill impairment, see Item 7. MD&A – Critical Accounting Estimates – Impairment Charges – Goodwill Impairment and Note 12 to the Consolidated Financial Statements.

Deferred income tax represents the tax effect of the differences between the book and tax basis of assets and liabilities. Deferred tax assets are assessed periodically by management to determine if they are realizable. The performance of the business, including the ability to generate future taxable income from a variety of sources and planning strategies, is factored into management’s determination. If, based on available evidence, it is more likely than not that the deferred tax asset will not be realized, then a valuation allowance must be established with a corresponding charge to net income. Such charges could have a material adverse effect on our consolidated results of operations, liquidity and financial condition.  For further discussion regarding deferred tax assets, see Item 7. MD&A – Critical Accounting Estimates – Income Taxes and Note 23 to the Consolidated Financial Statements.

 

ITEM 1B | Unresolved Staff Comments

There are no material unresolved written comments that were received from the SEC staff 180 days or more before the end of our fiscal year relating to periodic or current reports under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934.

 

ITEM 2 | Properties

We operate from approximately 166 offices in the United States and approximately 351 offices in approximately 56 foreign countries. The following offices are located in buildings in the United States owned by us:

In addition, our General Insurance companies own offices in 13 foreign countries and jurisdictions including Bermuda, Ecuador, Japan, Mexico, the UK and Venezuela. The remainder of the office space we use is leased.  We believe that our leases and properties are sufficient for our current purposes.

LOCATIONS OF CERTAIN ASSETS

As of December 31, 2018, approximately 15 percent of our consolidated assets were located outside the U.S. and Canada, including $413 million of cash and securities on deposit with regulatory authorities in those locations.

For additional geographic information see Note 3 to the Consolidated Financial Statements.

For total carrying values of cash and securities deposited by our insurance subsidiaries under requirements of regulatory authorities see Note 6 to the Consolidated Financial Statements. 

Operations outside the U.S. and Canada and assets held abroad may be adversely affected by political developments in foreign countries, including tax changes, nationalization and changes in regulatory policy, as well as by consequence of hostilities and unrest. The risks of such occurrences and their overall effect upon us vary from country to country and cannot be predicted. If expropriation or nationalization does occur, our policy is to take all appropriate measures to seek recovery of any affected assets. Certain of the countries in which our business is conducted have currency restrictions that generally cause a delay in a company’s ability to repatriate assets and profits.

For additional information see Item 1A. Risk Factors — Business and Operations.

 

ITEM 3 | Legal Proceedings

For a discussion of legal proceedings see Note 16 to the Consolidated Financial Statements, which is incorporated herein by reference.

 

ITEM 4 | Mine Safety Disclosures

Not applicable.

 

ITEM 5 | Market for Registrant’s Common Equity, Related Stockholder Matters and Issuer Purchases of Equity Securities

AIG’s common stock, par value $2.50 per share (AIG Common Stock), is listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE: AIG). On December 3, 2018, AIG’s Common Stock was voluntarily delisted from the Tokyo Stock Exchange. There were approximately  24,334 stockholders of record of AIG Common Stock as of February 11, 2019.

Our table of equity compensation plans will be included in the definitive proxy statement for AIG’s 2019 Annual Meeting of Shareholders. The definitive proxy statement will be filed with the SEC no later than 120 days after the end of AIG’s fiscal year pursuant to Regulation 14A.

The following table provides information about purchases made by or on behalf of AIG or any “affiliated purchaser” (as defined in Rule 10b-18(a)(3) under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (the Exchange Act)) of AIG Common Stock during the three months ended December 31, 2018:

(a)  During the November 1-30 period, we also repurchased 343,293 warrants to purchase shares of AIG Common Stock, at an average purchase price per warrant of $8.21, for an aggregate purchase price of $3 million. During the December 1-31 period, we also repurchased 406,162 warrants to purchase shares of AIG Common Stock, at an average purchase price per warrant of $5.22, for an aggregate purchase price of $2 million. 

(b)  Reflects the purchase of 343,293 and 406,162 warrants to purchase shares of AIG Common Stock in the November 1-30 and December 1-31 periods, respectively, which reduced the dollar value of the remaining repurchase authorization.

Our Board of Directors has authorized the repurchase of shares of AIG Common Stock and warrants to purchase shares of AIG Common Stock through a series of actions. On May 3, 2017, our Board of Directors approved an increase of $2.5 billion to the share repurchase authorization.

During the three-month period ended December 31, 2018 we purchased approximately 18 million shares of AIG Common Stock under this authorization for an aggregate purchase price of approximately $745 million. We also repurchased 749,455 warrants to purchase shares of AIG Common Stock during the three-month period ended December 31, 2018 for an aggregate purchase price of approximately $5 million.

On February 13, 2019, our Board of Directors authorized an additional increase to its previous repurchase authorization of AIG Common Stock of $1.5 billion, resulting in an aggregate remaining authorization on such date of approximately $2.0 billion. We did not repurchase any shares of AIG Common Stock from January 1, 2019 to February 13, 2019. Shares may be repurchased from time to time in the open market, private purchases, through forward, derivative, accelerated repurchase or automatic repurchase transactions or otherwise (including through the purchase of warrants).  Certain of our share repurchases have been and may from time to time be effected through Exchange Act Rule 10b5-1 repurchase plans. The timing of any future share repurchases will depend on market conditions, our business and strategic plans, financial condition, results of operations, liquidity and other factors.

For additional information on our share purchases see Note 17 to the Consolidated Financial Statements.  

The following Performance Graph compares the cumulative total shareholder return on AIG Common Stock for a five-year period (December 31, 2013 to December 31, 2018) with the cumulative total return of the S&P’s 500 stock index (which includes AIG), the S&P Property and Casualty Insurance Index (S&P P&C Index) and the S&P Life and Health Insurance Index (S&P L&H Index).  

Value of $100 Invested on December 31, 2013

(All $ as of December 31st)

 

Dividend reinvestment has been assumed and returns have been weighted to reflect relative stock market capitalization.

 

ITEM 6 | Selected Financial Data  

The Selected Consolidated Financial Data should be read in conjunction with Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations and the Consolidated Financial Statements and accompanying notes included elsewhere herein.

(a)  Book value per common share excluding Accumulated other comprehensive income (loss) (AOCI), Book value per common share excluding AOCI and DTA (Adjusted book value per common share), and return on equity – adjusted after-tax income excluding AOCI and DTA (Adjusted return on equity) are non-GAAP financial measures and the reconciliations to the relevant GAAP financial measures are below. For additional information see Item 7. MD&A — Use of Non‑GAAP Measures.  

(b)  Natural and man-made catastrophe losses are generally weather or seismic events having a net impact on AIG in excess of $10 million each and also include certain man-made events, such as terrorism and civil disorders that exceed the $10 million threshold.

The following are significant developments that affected multiple periods and financial statement captions.

business acquisition

On July 18, 2018, we completed the purchase of Validus.

Asset Dispositions in 2015, 2016 and 2017

In 2015, we sold all of our ordinary shares of AerCap Holdings N.V. (AerCap) received as part of the consideration for the sale of International Lease Finance Corporation (ILFC). In 2016, we sold United Guaranty to Arch Capital Group Ltd. (Arch).  In 2017, we sold Fuji Life to FWD Group and certain international insurance operations to Fairfax Financial Holdings Limited (Fairfax).

For further discussion on the 2016 and 2017 asset dispositions and the 2018 purchase of Validus, see Note 1 to the Consolidated Financial Statements.